Citroën Cars

Citroen is known as the first company outside the US to mass produce automobiles, and the company was founded in 1919 by Andre Citroën. He started with an empty factory after the end of the first World War, and began a business making cars; the first car Citroën made was the Type A. Andre Citroën, PR master that he was, used the Eiffel Tower in his advertising materials.

From the beginning, Citroën had a reputation for both good engineering and innovation, and that history began when the company became the first to mass-produce vehicles. Andre Citroën got plenty of practice at mass-production, as he produced arms for the French army in WWI.

In 1921, Citroën launched the Type C at Paris' Motor Show, and the first Citroën cabs started making the rounds in paris. The year before that, Citroën launched the Autochenille, which was a light industrial vehicle.

After embarking on a partnership with the American engineer Edward Budd, Citroën was able to introduce the first all-steel car body. However, the company still faced stiff competition from both French and other car makers, and the competition forced the company to concentrate less on innovation and more on watching its bottom line.

During the war, many Citroën vehicles started using other fuels such as gas, electricity and alcohol to compensate for a shortage of gasoline. Citroën focused on the production of utility vehicles throughout most of the 1940s, and the Javel truck plant was leveled by a bomb in 1943. However, with the help of many Citroën workers, the factory was back up and running within a year.

After the war was over, gasoline-fueled trucks helped to rebuild France; they provided efficient power at a low cost. Of all the vehicles that Citroën produced after the war, the 45G truck was perhaps the most efficient. By 1946, about half of all the vehicles Citroën produced were of a commercial nature.

Citroën produced the first ever self-leveling suspension in 1954, and in 1955, the Citroën DS was the first production car with disc brakes to come out of Europe. In 1967, the Citroën company introduced the swiveling headlight concept, which allowed for better visibility on curvy roads.

Today, Citroën specializes in producing practical, fuel-efficient vehicles for the industrial, public transportation, and private sectors. The company has a long history of producing quality vehicles, and that is a tradition that shows no signs of stopping.