The Peugeot lion was drawn for saw blades, not cars. A Montbéliard goldsmith designed it at the end of the 1840s to stand for a Peugeot saw's speed, flexibility and bite.
- Country
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France - Active
- Since 1810
- Founded by
- Jean-Pierre II and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot
- Website
- Official website ↗
A lion born in a saw workshop
The Peugeot lion is older than the Peugeot car by about four decades. It was drawn for saw blades.
The story starts in 1810, when Jean-Pierre II and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot, together with their brother-in-law Jacques Maillard-Salins, turned the family grain mill into a steel works. Peugeot says they made steel strips, springs for watchmaking and saw blades. The name on the door was simply the family’s own: Peugeot.
Cars came much later. The first motor vehicle with the Peugeot name was shown in 1889, a steam three-wheeler built with Léon Serpollet. In 1896 Armand Peugeot founded Automobiles Peugeot as a separate company, while other members of the family carried on with the traditional tools and, from 1905, also built cars under the Lion Peugeot brand.
A goldsmith, an arrow and a saw
According to Peugeot, at the end of the 1840s Emile Peugeot wanted a mark for the family’s products. He asked Justin Blazer, a goldsmith from Montbéliard, to design it. Blazer took his cue from Peugeot’s flagship product, the saw, and the three qualities a good one needs: speed, flexibility and bite.
His answer was a lion walking on an arrow. The lion stood for the strength of the teeth, the arrow for the speed of the cut. The lion appeared on saw blades from around 1850 and was registered as a trademark in November 1858, which is the date Peugeot gives for its official adoption.
From about 1907 the lion was on car radiator grilles. In the 1920s it climbed on top of the radiator as a mascot. Peugeot names two sculptors, Marx and Baudichon. Marx’s lion stands with one paw forward, while Baudichon’s runs with its mane flying and earned the nickname “in fourth gear”.
From full body to roaring head
Peugeot counts eleven updates of the lion since 1850, and they follow a clear path. The animal starts as a full figure, gets locked into a shield and ends up as just a head.
With the 201, 301, 401 and 601 of the 1930s, a lion’s head was worked into the grille. The 203 of 1948 put the lion on the bonnet. Then the rules changed: in October 1957 protruding ornaments on cars were banned, so Peugeot set a heraldic standing lion inside a coat of arms that Peugeot describes as similar to the emblem of Franche-Comté, the brand’s home region.
In the 1960s the body disappeared. Only the head was left, enlarged inside a shield with PEUGEOT written above it, and a few years later its lines turned sharper. In the early 1970s the lion left the shield and by the end of the decade it had turned from gold to silver. The 305 and 505 era brought a silver outline on black, and in the mid-1990s the lion became solid silver with a raised rib down the middle. For the 200th anniversary in 2010 it took a more dynamic pose with a matt and gloss two-metal finish.
Is it a lion or a lioness? Peugeot itself admits there is a debate, since some argue it is the lioness that hunts and has the bite. The company sticks with lion.
Not the Lion of Belfort
A popular theory says the badge copies the Lion of Belfort, the giant lion that the sculptor Bartholdi carved for the city of Belfort. The dates don’t work. Britannica says the Belfort lion was completed in 1880, more than twenty years after Peugeot registered its trademark, and the Belfort monument does not appear in Peugeot’s own account of the emblem.
The 2021 shield
On 25 February 2021 Peugeot unveiled its current emblem: a roaring lion’s head in profile inside a shield. It was created in-house by the Peugeot Design Lab and first went on the new 308 that year. Peugeot says the lion conveys pride, strength and status without aggression, and that the shield is a protective, timeless element. The flat, laser-cut look on a black background is meant to make the lion appear lit from above. Both Peugeot and the French magazine L’argus point out that it echoes the head-in-a-shield badge of the 1960s.
Cars that wore the lion
Peugeot has a numbering system you can spot from across the street, and a racing record that goes back more than a century.
Landmark Peugeots, decade by decade
- 1891: Type 3. Peugeot calls it the first car in the world to be mass-produced, with 64 built.
- 1913: Indianapolis 500. The first of three Peugeot wins at Indianapolis, followed by 1916 and 1919.
- 1929: 201. The first car with Peugeot’s three-digit names with a zero in the middle.
- 1948: 203. Peugeot’s first post-war car and its first with a monocoque body.
- 1960: 404. Styled by Pininfarina. According to L’argus, its badge was the starting point for the 2021 shield.
- 1983: 205. The model Peugeot credits with pulling the company out of its slump of the early 1980s.
- 2009: 908 HDi FAP. Won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In 1976 Peugeot took over Citroën, and the two brands have shared a group ever since. Today they are part of Stellantis, alongside Opel, Fiat and Alfa Romeo. For a closer look at how emblems like the lion are drawn, see how car logos are designed.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Peugeot lion mean?
It was first a promise about saws. Goldsmith Justin Blazer chose the lion for the qualities of a Peugeot saw blade: speed, flexibility and bite. Today Peugeot says the lion conveys pride, strength and status without aggression.
When was the Peugeot logo created?
The lion was designed at the end of the 1840s, appeared on saw blades from around 1850 and was registered as a trademark in 1858.
Is the Peugeot lion the Lion of Belfort?
No. Peugeot credits the design to Justin Blazer and registered it in 1858. Bartholdi’s Lion of Belfort was only completed in 1880.
When did Peugeot get its current logo?
The lion’s head in a shield was unveiled in February 2021 and first appeared on the new 308. Peugeot calls it the eleventh update of the lion since 1850.
Saw blades to the 308: the lion's pedigree
- Founded
- 1810
- Founder
- Jean-Pierre II and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot
- Country
- France
- Parent company
- Stellantis
- Current emblem
- A roaring lion's head in profile inside a shield, introduced in February 2021
- Known for
- The lion emblem and three-digit model names with a zero in the middle
- Website
- Official website ↗
