The first Opel ever sold was a sewing machine, made in Rüsselsheim in 1862. The lightning bolt on today's cars got its name from a delivery truck.
- Country
-
Germany - Active
- Since 1862
- Founded by
- Adam Opel
- Website
- Official website ↗
A sewing machine in a cowshed
The first Opel ever sold didn’t have wheels. It was a sewing machine, built by hand over several months in Rüsselsheim in 1862 and sold to a local tailor named Hummel, who kept using it for 40 years.
Adam Opel was 25 at the time, the eldest son of a master locksmith, and he had gone into sewing machines against his father’s wishes. In 1863 he moved production into a disused cowshed and hired his first employee. Bicycles followed in the 1880s, and by the 1920s Opel had become the world’s largest bicycle maker.
Adam died in 1895 and his five sons took over. On 21 January 1899 the family bought Friedrich Lutzmann’s Anhaltische Motorwagenfabrik in Dessau, and that same year the first car came out of Rüsselsheim. The name on it was simply the family’s: Opel.
Initials, an eye and an airship
Opel’s first mark was personal. Adam Opel put his initials, A and O, on the cast iron side panels of his sewing machines, and later on bicycles, first as a sticker and then as a nickel-plated brass plate. In 1902 the cars received a much smaller brass badge, an early forerunner of what came next.
That was the Opel Eye. According to Opel, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse sketched a draft during a meeting with Wilhelm Opel, who liked it. The Eye served as the official logo until 1935.
In 1934 a stylised Zeppelin appeared on the bonnets. Opel describes it as a symbol of human innovation and technical progress, and set inside a wheel it stood for mobility on Earth. A yellow and white oval, developed in 1937, became the logo at dealers and service stations in the 1950s and 1960s. It even appeared on the Frigidaire refrigerators Opel built in Germany from 1949 to 1959.
How a truck name became a lightning bolt
The word Blitz, German for lightning, is older than Opel’s cars. According to Opel, it already appeared on various bicycle models in 1889. It came back in 1930, when Opel ran a nationwide contest to find a catchy five-letter name for a new delivery truck. The winner was Blitz. Opel’s graphic designers then arranged the bolt into a logo, first inside the Opel Eye and later on its own.
For three decades the bolt was used only now and then. The big switch came in late 1963. In the words of Opel’s own magazine, the Zeppelin, “which had become very abstract, was turned into a lightning bolt”. Every 1964 model year car delivered from autumn 1963 carried the Blitz in a circle, and the Blitz has been on every Opel since.
From 1970, strict design guidelines framed the Blitz in a square next to the Opel name. In the new millennium the bolt gained a three-dimensional look. From 2016 new models wore a sculpted chrome Blitz, and in summer 2017 the official company logo went flat.
The Mokka of 2020 was the first model with a redrawn Blitz. Its ring was slimmer, with very sharp details, and the Opel lettering sat in the lower part of the ring. Mark Adams, Opel’s Vice President Design, compared it to “a fine engraving in a piece of jewellery”.
The sharper Blitz of 2023
On 26 June 2023 Opel unveiled its current Blitz. The bolt is sharper and more confident, and instead of sitting inside its ring, it cuts right through it. Opel ties the change to its electric plans: a lightning bolt is closely associated with electricity, which makes it a fitting symbol for a brand heading into electromobility. “Our Blitz is more relevant than ever before,” said CEO Florian Huettl.
The Opel Experimental concept car, shown at the IAA Mobility in Munich in September 2023, was the first vehicle to wear it. Production models followed from 2024, and the new Grandland went a step further: its Blitz is illuminated for the first time, and it is the first production Opel with illuminated OPEL lettering at the rear.
Yellow, then less yellow
Yellow has a long history with Opel. The oval of 1937, the one on dealer signs and fridges, was yellow and white. When Opel remodelled its corporate design for the first time in 1987, both the yellow and the square around the Blitz were scaled down. On the cars, the Blitz moved to sculpted chrome from 2016.
Frogs, rockets and a Blitz that glows
Opel’s history is full of firsts, and quite a few of them happened in Rüsselsheim long before the Blitz reached the bonnet.
Landmark Opels, decade by decade
- 1899: Patent-Motorwagen System Lutzmann. The car that started Opel’s automobile production in Rüsselsheim.
- 1924: 4/12 PS Laubfrosch. The first car built on a mass-production assembly line in Germany. Its nickname means tree frog.
- 1928: RAK 2. Fritz von Opel, Adam Opel’s eldest grandson, drove this rocket car to 238 km/h on the Berlin Avus on 23 May 1928.
- 1935: Olympia. The first German mass-produced car with a self-supporting all-steel body.
- 1965: Experimental GT. Shown at the IAA in Frankfurt, it was the first concept car from a European manufacturer.
- 2020: Mokka. The first model to carry the redrawn Blitz with its slimmer ring.
- 2024: Grandland. The first Opel with an illuminated Blitz, set in the 3D Vizor front.
Opel itself has had several owners. The Opel family gave up control in the 1920s, ultimately to General Motors. In 2017 Opel and its British sister Vauxhall were bought by PSA Group, the maker of Peugeot and Citroën, and since 2021 Opel has been part of Stellantis, alongside brands such as Fiat and Jeep. For more on how badges like the Blitz are drawn, see how car logos are designed.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Opel logo mean?
The Opel logo is a lightning bolt, called the Blitz, in a ring. The name comes from a 1930 contest to name an Opel delivery truck. Today Opel links the bolt to electricity and its move to electric cars.
When did Opel start using the lightning bolt?
Opel’s designers used the bolt now and then from 1930. It replaced the Zeppelin on the cars in late 1963, and every 1964 model year Opel delivered from autumn 1963 carried the Blitz in a circle.
When did Opel get its new logo?
Opel unveiled the current Blitz on 26 June 2023. The sharper bolt cuts through its ring, and it has appeared on production models from 2024.
Did Opel start out making cars?
No. Adam Opel founded the company in Rüsselsheim in 1862 to make sewing machines. Bicycles came in the 1880s, and car production began in 1899.
Opel at a flash
- Founded
- 1862
- Founder
- Adam Opel
- Country
- Germany
- Headquarters
- Rüsselsheim, Germany
- Parent company
- Stellantis
- Current emblem
- A sharpened lightning bolt (the Blitz) cutting through a ring, unveiled in 2023
- Known for
- The Blitz emblem and models like the Kadett and Corsa
- Website
- Official website ↗
