eventually produced more than 41,000 vehicles in over 70 versions between 19. In December 1942, it went into production with the M2 Half Track Car and M3 Half-track versions. This resulted in the United States Army Ordnance Department building a prototype in 1939. Army purchased several Citroën-Kégresse vehicles for evaluation followed by a licence to produce them. thus Citroën remained independent till 1935.īetween 19, Citroën produced half-track vehicles for off-road and military uses, using the Kégresse track system.

The deal nearly closed, but General Motors ultimately decided that its management and capital would be too overstretched by the takeover. That same year, André Citroën briefly negotiated with General Motors a proposed sale of the Citroën company. Ĭ 42 is the Citroën showroom on the Champs Elysées in Paris On 7 July 1919, the first customer took delivery of a new Citroën 10HP Type A. A few years later, Charron would be persuaded to become a major investor in the Citroën business. This C42 showroom is where the company organises exhibitions and shows its vehicles and concept cars. Citroën persuaded the owner of the Alda business, Fernand Charron, to lend him the show-room, which is still in use today. The first production Type A emerged from the factory, located at Quai de Javel, Vaugirard, Paris, at the end of May 1919 and in June it was exhibited at a show room at Number 42, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris which normally sold Alda cars. The result was the Type A, announced to the press in March 1919, just four months after the guns fell silent. André Citroën's mandate was characteristically demanding and characteristically simple: to produce an all-new design for a 10 HP car that would be better equipped, more robust and less costly to produce than any rival product at the time. In February 1917 Citroën contacted another engineer, Jules Salomon, who already had a considerable reputation within the French automotive sector as the creator, in 1909, of a little car called Le Zèbre. Long before that happened, however, he had modified his vision and decided, like Henry Ford, that the best post-war opportunities in auto-making would involve a lighter car of good quality, but made in sufficient quantities to be priced enticingly. The decision to switch to automobile manufacturing was taken as early as 1916, which is the year when Citroën asked the engineer Louis Dufresne, previously with Panhard, to design a technically-sophisticated 18HP automobile he could produce in his factory once peace returned. Citroën was already experienced in the automotive business, thanks to a successful six-year stint working with Mors between 1908 and the outbreak of war. These cars have received various national and international awards, including three European Car of the Year awards.Īndré Citroën (1878–1935) built armaments for France during World War I after the war, however, he realized that unless he planned ahead he would have a modern factory without a product. In 1954, they produced the world's first hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system then the revolutionary DS, the first mass-produced car with modern disc brakes, in 1955 and in 1967 they introduced in several of their models swiveling headlights that allowed for greater visibility on winding roads. This was the world's first car to be mass-produced with front-wheel drive, four-wheel independent suspension, as well as unibody construction, omitting a separate chassis, and instead using the body of the car itself as its main load-bearing structure. In 1934, the firm established its reputation for innovative technology with the Traction Avant.

Citroën's head office is located in the Stellantis Poissy Plant in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine since 2021 (previously in Rueil-Malmaison) and its offices studies and research in Vélizy-Villacoublay, Poissy (CEMR), Carrières-sous-Poissy and Sochaux-Montbéliard. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired 89.95% share in 1976. The 'Automobiles Citroën' manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën ( French pronunciation: ( listen)) is a French automobile brand.

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