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Private company

REO Motor Car Company

Logo: REO Motor Car Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American automotive company

The REO Motor Car Company was an American company based in Lansing, Michigan, which produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. At one point, the company also manufactured buses on its truck platforms. Ransom E. Olds was an entrepreneur who founded multiple companies in the automobile industry.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1905Founded1
  • Industryautomotive industry1
  • HeadquartersLansing1
  • Founded inLansing1

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R. E. Olds Transportation Museum July 2018 59 (1931 REO Royale)
Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

The REO Motor Car Company (REO pronounced, not letter by letter) was an American company based in Lansing, Michigan, which produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. At one point, the company also manufactured buses on its truck platforms.2

The story

Founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1905, in Lansing.1

Leadership

Who has led REO Motor Car Company, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Products and brands

  • car

Listed on Wikidata.1

Early production

By 1907, REO had gross sales of $4.5 million, and the company was one of the four wealthiest automobile manufacturers in the U.S. After 1908, however, despite the introduction of improved cars designed by Olds, REO's share of the automobile market decreased due in part to competition from emerging companies like Ford and General Motors.

REO added a truck-manufacturing division and a Canadian plant in St Catharines, Ontario, in 1910. Two years later, Olds claimed that he had built the best car he could, a tourer able to seat two, four, or five, with a 30–35 hp (22–26 kW) engine, 112 inches (2,845 mm) wheelbase, and 32 inches (81 cm) wheels, for $1,055 (not including top, windshield, or gas tank, which were US$100 extra); self-starter was $25 more.

In 1912 an REO special touring car made a 4,176 miles (6,720 km) Trans-Canada trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, British Columbia. The car, with mechanic/driver Fonce V. (Jack) Haney and journalist Thomas W. Wilby made the first trip by automobile across Canada (including one short jaunt into northeastern Washington State when the Canadian roads were virtually impassable).

In 1915, Olds relinquished the title of general manager to his protégé Richard H. Scott, and eight years later he also ended his tenure as president, remaining as chairman of the board.

Read the full text

From 1915 to 1925, under Scott's direction, REO remained profitable. The REO Speed Wagon was a light motor truck first introduced in 1915, an ancestor of the pickup truck. In 1923, the company sold an early recreational vehicle, called the "Motor Pullman Car". Designed by Battle Creek, Michigan, newspaper editor J. H. Brown, the automobile included a drop-down sleeping extension, a built-in gas cooking range, and a refrigerator.

In 1925 Scott, like many of his competitors, began an ambitious expansion program designed to make the company more competitive by offering cars in different price ranges. The failure of this program and the effects of the Great Depression caused such losses that Olds returned from retirement in 1933 and assumed control, but resigned in 1934. In 1936, REO abandoned the manufacture of automobiles to concentrate on trucks. In 1935, REO sold 5101 units and in 1936 it was 4227 trucks. In 1938, REO sold 2929 units and in 1939 it was 853 trucks.

Number of Motor Vehicles produced by REO

1905 - 12-15 Vehicles per day

1909 - 5728 Vehicles

1910 - 6588 Vehicles

1911 - 5728 Vehicles

1912 - 6342 Vehicles

1913 - 7647 Vehicles

1914 - 12745 Vehicles

1915 - 22247 Vehicles

1916 - 27811 Vehicles

1917 - 30246 Vehicles

1918 - 20158 Vehicles

1919 - 16483 Vehicles

1920 - 32800 Vehicles

1921 - 22342 Vehicles

1922 - 23152 Vehicles

1923 - 31880 Vehicles

1924 - 28681 Vehicles

1925 - 32650 Vehicles

1926 - 34542 Vehicles

Products

Buses

W 2 (1924)

REO Omnibus 12 passengers Sedan (1928)

REO Omnibus 12 passengers Post (1928)

REO Omnibus 18 passengers (1928)

REO Omnibus 20 passengers Sedan (1928)

REO Omnibus Typ A 22 passengers (1928)

REO Omnibus Typ B 22 passengers (1928)

REO Omnibus 28 passengers City (1928)

REO Omnibus 32 passengers Post (1934)

96HTD

W series

Gold Comet

From Wikipedia’s article on REO Motor Car Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 1975Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1905Founded Founded in Lansing1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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