Vauxhall Clips Its Griffin's Wings and Drops the V It's Carried for 121 Years

Vauxhall has redrawn its Griffin for the 13th time since 1915, and this version gives up something the badge has carried through twelve previous redesigns: the flag bearing a letter V, gone for the first time in 121 years. The mythical creature itself gets flattened and simplified too, with cleaner neck hair and a closed beak, building on the 2020 update rather than replacing it outright.

The point is not nostalgia, it is voltage. Mark Adams, Vauxhall's design vice president, said the badge needed to work as a lit-up element on the brand's newest electric models: "As the griffin is now illuminated on the front of our latest models, this simpler design also makes it clearer and easier to identify. The new look is sharper, cleaner and fits perfectly with the next evolution of our bold and pure design language." He was careful to frame it as preservation, not demolition: "The griffin emblem is instantly recognizable, with Vauxhalls seen on almost every street in Britain. Having adorned our vehicles in different forms for more than 120 years, we wanted to retain its essential elements while streamlining it for the next generation of electrified vehicles."

The original Griffin was not a boardroom decision at all. An apprentice named Harry Varley designed it in 1915 after winning an internal competition, choosing the creature to honor Sir Falkes de Breaute, a 13th-century landowner whose coat of arms featured a griffin and whose name is tied to the Vauxhall area of London. The redesigned badge debuts on the Vauxhall STX Concept at the Paris Motor Show in October 2026, before rolling onto production models starting in 2027, which gives Vauxhall a year to find out whether a flag-less Griffin still reads as a Griffin at highway speed.

Source: Dezeen

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →