CITROËN

Citroën is a French car manufacturer. Creator of the famous 2CV, the brand has revolutionized the world of the automotive industry in nearly a century of existence. Its cars are certified Origine France Garantie.

History. At the end of the First World War, during which he founded and managed a major shell manufacturing plant, the polytechnician André Citroën decided to create his own car brand in 1919. He transformed his shell factory, located on the current site of the André-Citroën park, Quai de Javel (now Quai André-Citroën) in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, to convert it into the production of motor vehicles. He absorbed the car manufacturer Mors, of which he has been managing director since 1906, and industrialized the brand's first model: the Citroën Type A. This model is the first European car to be manufactured in series. The car is advertised through a poster by designer Mich.

In 1924, Citroën began working with the American engineer Edward Gowan Budd, who had been working since 1899 on the development of all-steel bodies for railway cars and for many car brands (Dodgeetc). In 1925, Citroën industrialized the first fully enclosed "all-steel" bodywork in Europe. Success has been achieved, but industrial competition is strong and involves very strong creative, technical and industrial development.

Citroën innovates in terms of Fordism and Taylorism with cheap cars, to the detriment of its profits and very high development costs, ruinous in the midst of world wars and crises (Great Depression).

The revolutionary but very costly launch of the Traction Avant, the first monohull body that outperformed all its rivals for 15 years from 1934, did not save the brand from bankruptcy.

At the end of 1934, banks and creditors lost confidence and decided to stop monitoring its chronic over-indebtedness and significant financial losses, and to entrust the management to its main debtor Pierre Michelin, of the Michelin group, (second son of Édouard Michelin, co-founder of the Michelin group, one of Citroën's main creditors) with the very difficult task of preventing it from going bankrupt. On December 21, 1934, Citroën went into receivership. The main creditor, Michelin, takes over the brand and saves 250,000 jobs. Pierre-Jules Boulanger took over the torch two years later. He designed the project for a popular small-displacement car, the future 2CV. It was ready for commercialization in 1939 but waited until 1948. It will then be sold in excess of 7 million copies until 1990.

Originally named Société anonyme André Citroën, the company took the name Citroën SA in 1968.

In 1976, the French government asked the Peugeot family to save the brand from bankruptcy, it bought 90% of Citroën's share capital from Michelin and together they formed the PSA Peugeot Citroën group, a company with a management board and supervisory board, with the Peugeot family being the majority shareholder until 2014.

The products. DS, commercial vehicles, used vehicles, electric vehicles...