Celebrity Makeover: Eager to Rebrand, Volkswagen Readies New Logo for September Debut

The blue oval. The three-pointed star. The roundel. The four rings. When it comes to cars, some logos are more identifiable than others, but Volkswagen’s glistening chrome emblem ranks near the top of the easy recognition chart.

It’s classic, simple, and maybe a little dusty. Which is why VW plans to change it.

While reports arose last year of a looming, “colorful” change to the highly visible logo, we now have a better idea of what to expect when the automaker shows its new face in Frankfurt next month.

According to Autocar, the brand’s “New Volkswagen” logo aims to look as good on its vehicles as it does on those vehicles’ touchscreens, incorporating a two-dimensional design with no overlap between the “v” and the “w.” Light blue, white, and dark blue are the colors you’ll need to get used to — and so will VW employees, as the automaker plans a company-wide teardown of the old logo in 70,000 global locales following the logo’s September launch.

Blue, of course, is the industry’s go-to color for signifying the presence of electricity, and the Frankfurt Motor Show launch of the brand’s first (of many) I.D.-badged EVs would seem a natural place to kick off the blue-tinged rebranding.

Work on the logo has apparently been ongoing for the past three years. The first vehicle to carry the updated emblem won’t be an all-electric model, however — the eighth-generation Golf, due out late this year, gets that privilege. When the next-gen GTI rolls out, VW fans will be treated to a red logo.

In a release, VW stated that the logo will be “reduced to its essential elements.”

Speaking in Wolfsburg this week, Volkswagen marketing boss Jochen Sengpiehl said the brand’s current logo — last tweaked in 2010 — had “become a bit heavy, somewhat immobile, especially in today’s digital era.”

“What began as a fundamental crisis turned out to be a catalyst for the transformation of Volkswagen,” said Brandstätter. “Now it’s time to boldly move forward. We plan to be the world market leader in electric mobility by 2025, which means selling one million EVs per year by then.”

Europe will naturally be first to see the new logo go up, with China following in October. The new design appears in North America in early 2020.

[Image: Volkswagen Group]