Steyr Logo

Steyr Brand Overview

Steyr built cars, trucks and military vehicles in Austria for more than four decades, but it never started out as a car company. Its parent, Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft (ÖWG), was a rifle maker founded in Steyr, Upper Austria, in 1864 by Josef Werndl. ÖWG had already branched into bicycles in 1894, and in 1915, during the First World War, it added a vehicle department alongside its weapons lines.

The 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain, which followed Austria-Hungary’s defeat, banned large-scale Austrian arms production. To keep its factories running, ÖWG turned its machinery toward cars, trucks and tractors. It hired the designer Hans Ledwinka, who had just left Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau (later Tatra), as chief engineer in 1917. Ledwinka’s first Steyr, the six-cylinder Type II “12/40”, reached the market in 1920 with a 3.3-litre single-overhead-camshaft engine, an advanced design for its time. He left for Tatra a few years later over disagreements about building cheaper small cars, an idea he later put to use on the Tatra T97, a car often linked to the origins of the Volkswagen Beetle.

In 1926 the company was renamed Steyr-Werke AG. Ferdinand Porsche joined as chief engineer in 1929 after leaving Mercedes-Benz, and he designed the Type XXX and the ambitious eight-cylinder Austria luxury model, a project the Depression-era banks running the company soon cancelled. Steyr merged with Austro-Daimler and Puch in 1934 to form Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG. Through the 1930s the firm built a wide range of cars, from the six-cylinder Steyr 220, introduced in 1937 with a 2.3-litre engine, to the small Steyr 50 and 55, nicknamed the “Baby”, of which around 13,000 were built by 1940. During the Second World War the factories switched to military production, including the Steyr 1500 truck and the Raupenschlepper Ost tracked vehicle.

After 1945, rather than design new passenger cars, Steyr built Austrian versions of Fiat models, fitting its own engines and running gear to cars such as the Fiat 1100 and the Fiat 1900-based Steyr 2000. Steyr-branded car manufacturing ended in 1959, when the last of these Fiat-based models was replaced by imported Fiat 1800 and 2100 saloons. The Steyr-Daimler-Puch group kept building vehicles of its own design afterward, most notably the rugged Haflinger off-roader from 1959 and the larger Pinzgauer, and in 1972 it agreed to develop and build the Mercedes-Benz G-Class jointly with Daimler-Benz, with production starting at its Graz plant in 1979.

Steyr-Daimler-Puch broke up between 1987 and 2001. Its vehicle-engineering arm became Magna Steyr after Magna International took a majority stake in 1998, and the Graz plant still builds cars under contract for other brands today, including the Mercedes G-Class, the Jaguar E-Pace and the Toyota Supra. The tractor business passed to Case IH, the diesel-engine unit became Steyr Motors, and the firearms division, renamed Steyr Mannlicher and later Steyr Arms, continues to make sporting and military rifles as a separate company.

Steyr Logo Meaning

The Steyr emblem is a set of concentric rings crossed by a vertical and horizontal line, with the word STEYR lettered across the centre. The design reads as a gunsight or rifle target, a direct reference to the company’s origin as an arms manufacturer before it ever built a car. The same target motif, in various forms, has marked Steyr-badged products from vehicles to bicycles to firearms, tying the automobile brand back to the weapons works it grew out of in 1915.

Steyr Logo History and Evolution

1915–1926: The Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft Monogram

When ÖWG launched its vehicle department in 1915 and the first Steyr cars appeared in 1920, the business was still trading as Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft. Its corporate mark was an ornate serif monogram built from the company’s initials, set on two lines, in the decorative style typical of Austrian industrial branding at the time. This identity lasted until the 1926 reorganisation into Steyr-Werke AG.

1926–1959: The Target Emblem of Steyr-Werke and Steyr-Daimler-Puch

As Steyr-Werke AG and then, from 1934, Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG, the company adopted the circular target badge that has represented the Steyr name ever since. Rings radiate out from a crosshair at the centre, with STEYR lettered through the middle in a rounded typeface. It stayed in use on Steyr-badged cars, trucks and military vehicles through the end of car production in 1959, and it remains the mark associated with the Steyr name across the businesses that descend from Steyr-Daimler-Puch today.

Who Owns Steyr Today?

No single company owns the Steyr automobile brand, because it has not built cars of its own design since 1959. The name lives on split across several independent businesses that all trace back to Steyr-Daimler-Puch: Magna Steyr builds vehicles for other manufacturers at the original Graz plant, Steyr Motors makes diesel engines, Case IH sells Steyr-branded tractors, and Steyr Arms produces firearms, having been acquired by the Czech investment group RSBC Holding in 2024.

FAQ

When was Steyr founded?

The Steyr vehicle business began in 1915 as a branch of the arms maker Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft, itself founded in 1864. The first Steyr car, the Type II “12/40”, went on sale in 1920.

Why did Steyr stop making cars?

Steyr-branded car manufacturing ended in 1959. In its final years the company had been building Austrian versions of Fiat models rather than its own designs, and these were simply replaced by imported Fiat saloons rather than renewed.

What does the Steyr logo mean?

The concentric rings and crosshair represent a gunsight or shooting target, a nod to the company’s roots as an Austrian rifle manufacturer that only later branched into cars, trucks and tractors.

Who owns Steyr now?

No company owns the original automobile brand today. Its descendants are separate businesses: Magna Steyr (contract vehicle manufacturing), Steyr Motors (diesel engines), Case IH Steyr (tractors) and Steyr Arms (firearms).

What happened to Steyr after 1959?

The wider Steyr-Daimler-Puch group kept building vehicles of its own, including the Haflinger and Pinzgauer off-roaders and, from the early 1970s, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class in partnership with Mercedes-Benz. The group broke up between 1987 and 2001 into the separate companies that carry the Steyr name today.