It is always an interesting journey, to find out the true intentions behind an automaker's name. Today we take a look at various car brands and the history behind their names.
August Horch, a German engineer founded a company called August Horch & Cie. Motorwagenwerke AG in the year 1899. After a few misunderstandings among the associates at that time, Horch simply left the company in order to build a new empire of his own. In the year 1909 Horch built a company n however as the previous company chose to retain their name “Horch” which meant “listen” in German, Horch chose to go for the Latin translation of the same word, “Audi”.
BMW began to operate in the year 1912 and came into existence through a joint venture of three companies coming together. The acronym BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke GmnH, which translates to Bavarian Motor Works Company. The name is an homage to Bavaria, where it was founded while simultaneously speaking of its work in making engines for multiple number of uses.
Mercedes-Benz as a company came into existence through Karl Benz, who was the first man to engineer an internal combustion engine that is to be used in a car. Mercedes as a brand however was created by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) and was registered as a brand name in the year 1902.
The first motorized car built by Henry Royce was in the year 1904. The very same year Henry Royce met with Charles Rolls, an automaker selling quality cars in London. Post their meet, it was decided that an agreement was to be made which resulted in Henry Royce producing a range of cars specifically for CS Rolls & Co to be sold. Hence it was also agreed that the cars be known as Rolls-Royce.
This ultra-luxury sports car brand has been named after the founder of the company, Enzo Ferrari who himself was once an Alto racecar driver. In the year 1939, Enzo Ferrari exited the racing world in order to build a company of his own. Only one year after creating his company he built and raced the 8-cylinder 815 spiders that won the Grand Prix in 1947. The word Ferrari comes from the Italian word “Ferraro” which means blacksmith.
