Rebranded car manufacturers

Dacia and Kia have both become rebranded car manufacturers.

I’ve mentioned in other posts that car logos are being streamlined or simplified to enable them to work across digital media and it got me thinking about rebranded car manufacturers.

The latest brand that has caught my attention is Dacia, the value-focused brand that was bought by Renault around 20 years ago.

You may recall the previous logo, a blue sans serif font sitting in a 3D metallic like shield, well that’s now gone.

Instead it’s been replaced by new modern geometric look which gives the impression of the brand going up market.

I particularly like how modern it looks and the letters ‘D’ and ‘C’ are in fact flipped versions or each other which, when viewed on the car grille actually touch to form the logo.

Back in January 2021 the Korean car brand unveiled its new logo and slogan.

The old Kia logo you might remember was all in red capitals but separate letterforms, the quirky thing being the missing horizontal bar on the ‘A’.

The old logo also contained serifs on the left hand side which were there to convey movement.

Explaining the new logo the brand said in a statement, the type is now a “rhythmical, unbroken line.”

You will notice that the new logo has some symmetry which “demonstrates confidence” while the sharp slants “embody Kia’s rising ambitions for the brand”.

I don’t think this new type is as legible as the old logo and could almost be mistaken for ‘KM’ or ‘KN’ however there’s no denying it’s much bolder and modern than the previous logo.

Kia also now has a new tag line ‘Movement that inspires’ which replaces its previous tag line ‘Power to surprise’.

Personally I don’t think the new logo is as easy to read as the previous logo but is certainly much more modern and streamlined.

Would you say that these rebranded car manufacturers are an improvement on the previous logos?

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments.