see chevy chase . for other uses see chevrolet disambiguation . chevrolet find new roads type division industry automotive founded 3 november 1911 ; 104 years ago 1911 11 03 founder louis chevrolet william c. durant headquarters detroit michigan u.s. area served worldwide except oceania key people alan batey senior vice president 1 products automobiles commercial vehicles trucks services vehicle financing vehicle insurance vehicle repairs vehicle sales oil changes owner general motors company website chevrolet.com chevrolet vr le shev r lay colloquially referred to as chevy and formally the chevrolet division of general motors company is an american automobile division of the american manufacturer general motors gm . louis chevrolet and ousted general motors founder william c. durant started the company on november 3 1911 2 as the chevrolet motor car company . durant used the chevrolet motor car company to acquire a controlling stake in general motors with a reverse merger occurring on may 2 1918 and propelled himself back to the gm presidency . after durant s second ousting in 1919 alfred sloan with his maxim a car for every purse and purpose would pick the chevrolet brand to become the volume leader in the general motors family selling mainstream vehicles to compete with henry ford s model t in 1919 and overtaking ford as the best selling car in the united states by 1929 . 3 chevrolet branded vehicles are sold in most automotive markets worldwide with the notable exception of oceania where gm is represented by its australian subsidiary holden . in 2005 chevrolet was relaunched in europe primarily selling vehicles built by gm daewoo of south korea with the tagline daewoo has grown up enough to become chevrolet a move rooted in general motors attempt to build a global brand around chevrolet . with the reintroduction of chevrolet to europe gm intended chevrolet to be a mainstream value brand while gm s traditional european standard bearers opel of germany and vauxhall of england would be moved upmarket . 4 however gm reversed this move in late 2013 announcing that the brand would be withdrawn from europe with the exception of the camaro and corvette 5 in 2016 . chevrolet vehicles will continue to be marketed in the cis states including russia . after general motors fully acquired gm daewoo in 2011 to create gm korea the last usage of the daewoo automotive brand was discontinued in its native south korea and succeeded by chevrolet . in north america chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles from subcompact automobiles to medium duty commercial trucks . due to the prominence and name recognition of chevrolet as one of general motors global marques chevrolet chevy or chev is used at times as a synonym for general motors or its products one example being the gm ls1 engine commonly known by the name or a variant thereof of its progenitor the chevrolet small block engine . contents 1 history 2 international operations 2.1 north america 2.1.1 canada 2.1.2 mexico 2.2 asia 2.2.1 china 2.2.2 india 2.2.3 japan 2.2.4 malaysia 2.2.5 middle east 2.2.6 pakistan 2.2.7 philippines 2.2.8 south korea 2.2.9 thailand 2.2.10 uzbekistan 2.3 australia 2.4 south africa 2.5 europe 2.5.1 poland 2.5.2 russia 2.6 south america 2.6.1 argentina 2.6.2 brazil 2.6.3 chile 2.6.4 ecuador 2.6.5 venezuela 2.6.6 colombia 2.6.7 trinidad and tobago 3 vehicle models 4 sport 4.1 nascar 4.2 indycar 4.3 tudor united sportscar championship 4.4 fia world touring car championship 4.5 british touring car championship 4.6 british football 5 marketing 5.1 chevrolet bowtie logo 5.2 typography 5.3 100th anniversary 5.4 advertising 5.5 marketing agency 5.6 chevrolet only naming attempt 6 watches 7 see also 8 notes 9 references 10 external links history first logo of the company 1911 . on november 3 1911 swiss race car driver and automotive engineer louis chevrolet co founded the chevrolet motor company in detroit with william c. durant and investment partners william little maker of the little automobile james h. whiting 6 dr. edwin r. campbell son in law of durant and in 1912 r. s. mclaughlin ceo of general motors in canada . durant was cast out from the management of general motors in 1910 for five years . he took over the flint wagon works incorporating the mason and little companies . as head of buick motor company prior to founding gm durant had hired louis chevrolet to drive buicks in promotional races . 7 durant planned to use chevrolet s reputation as a racer as the foundation for his new automobile company . the first factory location was in flint michigan at the corner of wilcox and kearsley street now known as chevy commons at coordinates 43 00 31 n 83 42 36 w 43.0086339 n 83.7099114 w 43.0086339 ; 83.7099114 chevy commons along the flint river across the street from kettering university . actual design work for the first chevy the costly series c classic six was drawn up by etienne planche following instructions from louis . the first c prototype was ready months before chevrolet was actually incorporated . however the first actual production wasn t until the 1913 model . so in essence there were no 1911 or 1912 production models only the 1 pre production model was made and fine tuned throughout the early part of 1912 . then in the fall of that year the new 1913 model was introduced at the new york auto show . the bowtie emblem introduced in 1913 . 1929 chevrolet firebrigade porto chevrolet first used the bowtie emblem 8 logo in 1914 on the h series models royal mail and baby grand and the l series model light six . it may have been designed from wallpaper durant once saw in a french hotel room . 9 more recent research by historian ken kaufmann presents a case that the logo is based on a logo of the coalettes coal company . 10 11 an example of this logo as it appeared in an advertisement for coalettes appeared in the atlanta constitution on november 12 1911 . 12 others claim that the design was a stylized swiss cross in tribute to the homeland of chevrolet s parents . 13 over time chevrolet would use several different iterations of the bowtie logo at the same time often using blue for passenger cars gold for trucks and an outline often in red for cars that had performance packages . chevrolet eventually unified all vehicle models with the gold bowtie in 2004 for both brand cohesion as well as to differentiate itself from ford with its blue oval logo and dodge who has often used red for its imaging its two primary domestic rivals . 14 louis chevrolet had differences with durant over design and in 1914 sold durant his share in the company . by 1916 chevrolet was profitable enough with successful sales of the cheaper series 490 to allow durant to repurchase a controlling interest in general motors . after the deal was completed in 1917 durant became president of general motors and chevrolet was merged into gm as a separate division . in 1919 chevrolet s factories were located at flint michigan ; branch assembly locations were located in tarrytown n.y. norwood ohio st. louis missouri oakland california ft. worth texas and oshawa ontario general motors of canada limited . mclaughlin s were given gm corporation stock for the proprietorship of their company article sept. 23 1933 financial post page 9 . 15 in the 1918 model year chevrolet introduced the series d a v8 powered model in four passenger roadster and five passenger tourer models . sales were poor and it was dropped in 1919 . beginning also in 1919 gmc commercial grade trucks were rebranded as chevrolet and using the same chassis of chevrolet passenger cars and building light duty trucks . gmc commercial grade trucks were also rebranded as chevrolet commercial grade trucks sharing an almost identical appearance with gmc products . 2008 gmc sierra 2010 chevrolet silverado 1946 chevrolet pickup 1941 gmc model 9314 1919 gmc tanker 1920 chevrolet tow truck chevrolet continued into the 1920s 1930s and 1940s competing with ford and after the chrysler corporation formed plymouth in 1928 plymouth ford and chevrolet were known as the low priced three . 16 in 1929 they introduced the famous stovebolt overhead valve inline six cylinder engine giving chevrolet a marketing edge over ford which was still offering a lone flathead four a six at the price of a four . in 1933 chevrolet launched the standard six which was advertised in the united states as the cheapest six cylinder car on sale . 17 chevrolet had a great influence on the american automobile market during the 1950s and 1960s . in 1953 it produced the corvette a two seater sports car with a fiberglass body . in 1957 chevy introduced its first fuel injected engine 18 the rochester ramjet option on corvette and passenger cars priced at 484 . 19 in 1960 it introduced the corvair with a rear mounted air cooled engine . in 1963 one out of every ten cars sold in the united states was a chevrolet . 20 during the 1960s and early 1970s the standard chevrolet particularly the deluxe impala series became one of america s best selling lines of automobiles in history . the basic chevrolet small block v8 design has remained in continuous production since its debut in 1955 longer than any other mass produced engine in the world although current versions share few if any parts interchangeable with the original . descendants of the basic small block ohv v8 design platform in production today have been much modified with advances such as aluminium block and heads electronic engine management and sequential port fuel injection . depending on the vehicle type chevrolet v8s are built in displacements from 4.3 to 9.4 litres with outputs ranging from 111 horsepower 83 kw to 994 horsepower 741 kw as installed at the factory . the engine design has also been used over the years in gm products built and sold under the pontiac oldsmobile buick hummer opel germany and holden australia nameplates . in 2005 general motors re launched the chevrolet marque in europe using rebadged versions of the daewoo cars produced by gm korea . 21 the chevrolet division has largely recovered from the economic downturn of 2007 2010 through launching new vehicles and improving existing lines . gm began developing more fuel efficient cars and trucks to compete with foreign automakers . in late 2010 general motors began production of the plug in electric chevrolet volt and related opel vauxhall ampera 22 which later was announced as the 2012 north american car of the year european car of the year and world green car of the year . international operations top ten chevrolet sales markets 2011 23 rank in gm location vehicle sales market share % 1 united states 1 175 812 36.9 % 2 brazil 632 201 13.3 % 3 china 595 068 12.5 % 4 russia 173 485 3.6 % 5 mexico 162 461 3.4 % 6 canada 150 540 3.2 % 7 argentina 133 491 2.8 % 8 kazakhstan 121 584 2.6 % 9 india 111 056 2.3 % 10 colombia 105 783 2.2 % 11 el salvador 105 783 2.2 % as of 2010 update chevrolet had operations in over 140 countries and global sales in 2011 set a record with 4.76 million vehicles sold worldwide . 23 north america canada main article general motors canada mexico mexico has a mix of chevrolet models from different gm brands and platforms branded as chevrolet . the models come from chevrolet usa gm korea mexico and other origins . examples of opel sourced vehicles are vectra astra corsa meriva zafira and captiva opel antara . mexico also has some cars of its own such as the chevy c2 which is a reworked older generation corsa b. vehicles based on us platforms are