Oltena Logo

Oltena was a Romanian car marque rather than an independent manufacturer. The name was used by the Craiova factory that had built the Oltcit Club, after the Oltcit identity could no longer be carried over. Its emblem belongs to a short transitional window in the early 1990s, between the end of Citroën’s involvement in the plant and the arrival of Daewoo.

Meaning and history

The name that preceded Oltena explains itself far better than Oltena does. Oltcit combined “Olt” from Oltenia, the Romanian region around Craiova, with “cit” from Citroën, and that joint authorship was reflected in the badge: according to the Oltcit entry on Wikipedia, it resembled the Citroën mark but carried a single chevron instead of two, alongside the letter “O”. The plant itself was founded in 1976 as a joint venture between the Romanian state, with a 64% share, and Citroën, with 36%, as Radio Romania International’s encyclopaedia feature records. Series production followed in 1981.

That arrangement ended when Citroën withdrew, an event dated to 1990 by the specialist site Citroenët and to 1991 by other accounts. The state absorbed the French partner’s 36% stake, and the company was renamed Automobile Craiova S.A. in 1991, after which its cars continued under the Oltena name. The same sources document that the rebadging came with a change of emblem: Citroenët notes plainly that “with the withdrawal of Citroën, there was a change in logo”. The exact date of the switch is not consistent across sources, with Wikipedia’s Oltena article placing the Oltena brand in 1991 and 1992, and the Romanian Academy’s technical-history volume dating the creation of the Oltena marque to November 1993.

Oltena Logo PNG

Model listings reflect the same uncertainty. Wikipedia records an Oltena Club for 1991 to 1994 and an Oltena Club 12 CS for 1993 to 1994, which fits a marque life of roughly three to five years rather than the longer span sometimes attached to the Oltena name. Surviving artwork connected to the marque is generally placed within that early-1990s window.

What the Oltena badge actually looked like, in its shape, colours or lettering, is not described in the sources. The change itself is documented; the resulting artwork is not, and published references give no designer or agency credit for it. That gap is the main reason the Oltena mark is usually discussed through its predecessor. The Oltcit emblem, with its single chevron and “O”, is the one that can be described with confidence, and it was precisely the element that had to be abandoned once the Citroën-derived name went out of use.

The marque did not last long. Oltena production is generally placed between 1994 and early 1996, when the company was renamed SC Axa SA Craiova, an episode Citroenët associates with reported losses of about $1,500 per car. Before that, on 10 October 1994, Automobile Craiova formed a joint venture with Daewoo Heavy Industries, known as RODAE and held 51% by Daewoo and 49% by the Romanian side, according to Wikipedia’s Rodae entry. The first Daewoo Cielo was built at Craiova in 1996, the operation became Daewoo Automobile Romania in 1997, and after the Romanian state repurchased Daewoo’s 51% stake in 2006 the site eventually passed to Ford, whose acquisition contract was signed on 21 March 2008.

Those later chapters concern the factory and its corporate owners, not the Oltena identity. Oltena was a badge used during a short handover period, and it is best understood as the point at which a Citroën-linked Romanian car name was replaced by a purely local one.