Citroën (French pronunciation: [si.tʁɔ.ɛn]) is a French automobile manufacturer founded in 1919 by the French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën, and part of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group since 1976.
In 1934, the firm established its reputation for innovative technology with the Traction Avant.
This car was the world's first mass-produced front wheel drive car, and also one of the first to feature a unitary type body, with no chassis supporting the mechanical components.
In 1954 they produced the world's first hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system then, in 1955, the revolutionary DS, the first mass-produced car with modern disc brakes and, in 1967, they introduced in several of their models swiveling headlights that allowed for greater visibility on winding roads; these cars have received various national and international awards, including three European Car of the Year.
With a successful history in motorsport, Citroën is the only automobile manufacturer to have won three different official championships from the International Automobile Federation: the World Rally Raid Championship five times, the World Rally Championship eight times and the World Touring Car Championship.
Citroën has been selling vehicles in China since 1984, largely via the Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën joint venture, which today represents a major market for the brand. In 2014, when PSA Peugeot Citroën ran into severe financial difficulties, the Dongfeng Motor Corporation took an ownership stake.
André Citroën built armaments for France during World War I; after the war however, he realised that, unless he planned ahead he would have a modern factory without a product. There was nothing automatic about his decision to become an automobile manufacturer once the war was over: the automotive business was one that Citroën knew well, thanks to a successful six-year stint working with Mors between 1908 and the outbreak of war. The decision to switch to automobile manufacturing was evidently 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 for which he could use his factory once peace returned. 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. 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. 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.
The result was the Type A, announced to the press in March 1919, just four months after the guns fell silent. The first production Type A emerged from the factory 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. Citroën persuaded the owner of the Alda business, Fernand Charron, to lend him the show-room, which is still in use today. This C42 showroom is where the company organises exhibitions and shows its vehicles and concept cars. A few years later, Charron would be persuaded to become a major investor in the Citroën business. On 7 July 1919, the first customer took delivery of a new Citroën 10HP Type A.
That same year, André Citroën briefly negotiated with General Motors a proposed sale of the Citroën company. The deal nearly closed, but General Motors ultimately decided that its management and capital would be too overstretched by the takeover. thus Citroën remained independent till 1935.
Between 1921 and 1937, Citroën produced half-track vehicles for off-road and military uses, using the Kégresse track system. In the 1920s, the U.S. Army purchased several Citroën-Kégresse vehicles for evaluation followed by a licence to produce them. This resulted in the Army Ordnance Department building a prototype in 1939. In December 1942, it went into production with the M2 Half Track Car and M3 Half-track versions. The U.S. eventually produced more than 41,000 vehicles in over 70 versions between 1940 and 1944. After their 1940 occupation of France, the Nazi's captured many of the Citroën half-track vehicles and armored them for their own use.
Mr Citroën was a keen marketer: he used the Eiffel Tower as the world's largest advertising sign, as recorded in Guinness World Records. He also sponsored expeditions in Asia (Croisière Jaune), North America (Croisière Blanche) and Africa (Croisière Noire), demonstrating the potential for motor vehicles equipped with the Kégresse track system to cross inhospitable regions. These expeditions conveyed scientists and journalists.
Demonstrating extraordinary toughness, a 1923 Citroën that had already travelled 48,000 km (30,000 mi) was the first car to be driven around Australia. The car, a 1923 Citroën 5CV Type C Torpedo, was driven by Neville Westwood from Perth, Western Australia, on a round trip from August to December 1925. This vehicle is now fully restored and in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.
In 1924, Citroën began a business relationship with the American engineer Edward G. Budd. From 1899, Budd had worked to develop stainless steel bodies for railroad cars, for the Pullman in particular. Budd went on to manufacture steel bodies for many automakers, Dodge being his first big auto client. At the Paris Motor Show in October 1924, Citroën introduced the Citroën B10, the first all-steel body in Europe. These automobiles were initially successful in the marketplace, but soon competitors ( who were still using a wooden structure for their vehicles ) introduced new body designs. Citroën who did not redesign the bodies of his cars, still sold in large quantities nonetheless, the cars' low price being the main selling point, which factor however caused Citroën to experience heavy losses.
In 1927 the bank Lazard helped Citroën by bringing new much-needed funds, as well as by renegotiating its debt - for example, by buying out the Société de Vente des Automobiles Citroën (SOVAC) - It went even further by entering in its capital and being represented on the board; the three directors sent by Lazard were Raymond Philippe, Andre Meyer and Paul Frantzen.
André Citroën perceived the need to differentiate his product, to avoid the low price competition surrounding his conventional rear drive models in the late 1920s/early 1930s. In 1933 he introduced the Rosalie, the first commercially available passenger car with a diesel engine, developed with Harry Ricardo.
The Traction Avant is a car that pioneered the mass production of three revolutionary features that are still in use today: a unitary body with no separate frame, four wheel independent suspension and front-wheel drive. Whereas for many decades, the vast majority of motor cars were similar in conception to the Ford Model T – a body bolted onto a ladder frame which held all the mechanical elements of the car, a solid rear axle that rigidly connected the rear wheels and rear wheel drive. The Model T school of automobile engineering proved popular because it was considered cheap to build, although it did pose dynamic defects as automobiles were becoming more capable, and resulted in heavier cars, which is why today cars are more like the Traction Avant than the Model T under the skin.
In 1934 Citroën commissioned the American Budd Company to create a prototype, which evolved into the 7 fiscal horsepower (CV), 32 hp (24 kW) Traction Avant.
Achieving quick development of the Traction Avant, tearing down and rebuilding the factory (in five months) and the extensive marketing efforts, were investments that resulted too costly for Citroën to do all at once, causing the financial ruin of the company. In December 1934, despite the assistance of the Michelin company, Citroën filed for bankruptcy. Within the month, Michelin, already the car manufacturer's largest creditor, became its principal shareholder. However, the technologically advanced Traction Avant had met with market acceptance, and the basic philosophy of cutting edge technology used as a differentiator, continued until the late 1990s. Pierre Michelin became the chairman of Citroën early in 1935. Pierre-Jules Boulanger, his deputy, became the vice-president and chief of the engineering and design departments. In 1935, the founder André Citroën died from stomach cancer.
Pierre-Jules Boulanger had been a First World War air reconnaissance photography specialist with the French Air Force; he was capable and efficient and finished the war with the rank of captain. He was also courageous, having been decorated with the Military Cross and the Legion of Honour. He started working for Michelin in 1918, reporting directly to Édouard Michelin, co-director and founder of the business. Boulanger joined the Michelin board in 1922 and became president of Citroën in January 1938 after the death in a road accident his friend Pierre Michelin remaining in this position until his own death in 1950. In 1938, he also had become Michelin's joint managing director.
During the German occupation of France in World War II Boulanger refused to meet Dr. Ferdinand Porsche or communicate with the German authorities except through intermediaries. He organized a "go slow" on production of trucks for the Wehrmacht, many of which were sabotaged at the factory by putting the notch on the oil dipstick in the wrong place, which resulted in engine seizure. In 1944 when the Gestapo headquarters in Paris was sacked by the French Resistance, his name was prominent on a Nazi blacklist of the most important enemies of the Reich, to be arrested in the event of an allied invasion of France.
Citroën researchers, including Paul Magès, continued their work in secret, against the express orders of the Germans, and developed the concepts that were later brought to market in three remarkable vehicles – a small car (2CV), a delivery van (Type H) and a large, swift family car (DS). These were widely regarded by contemporary journalists as avant garde, even radical, solutions to automotive design.
Thus began a decades' long period of unusual brand loyalty, normally seen in the automobile industry only in niche brands, like Porsche and Ferrari.
Citroën unveiled the 2CV—signifying two fiscal horsepower, initially only 12 hp (8.9 kW)—at the Paris Salon in 1948. The car became a bestseller, achieving the designer's aim of providing rural French people with a motorized alternative to the horse. It was unusually inexpensive to purchase and, with its tiny two cylinder engine, inexpensive to run as well. The 2CV pioneered a very soft, interconnected suspension, but did not have the more complex self-levelling feature. This car remained in production, with only minor changes, until 1990 and was a common sight on French roads until recently; 8.8 Million 2CV variants were produced in the period 1948–1990.
1955 saw the introduction of the DS, the first full usage of Citroën's hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system, tested on the rear suspension of the Traction in 1954, which was also the first production car with modern disc brakes.
A single high-pressure hydraulic system was used to activate the power steering, the suspension and brakes; the brakes were power assisted to multiply the force applied by the driver.
On the Citromatic (semi-automatic transmission) version, the system also operated the clutch, through a system of pistons in the gearbox cover to shift the gears in the transmission.
From 1968, the DS also introduced directional headlights, that moved with the steering, improving visibility at night.
The streamlined car was remarkable for its era and had a remarkable sounding name – in French, DS is pronounced [de.ɛs], which sounds the same as déesse, which means Goddess. It placed third in the 1999 Car of the Century competition.
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