Automobiles Unic

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Unic logo with the words "Georges Richard Unic Puteaux"
Unic from 1909
Unic from 1916
UNIC ZU 122T from 1962

Automobiles Unic ( Société Anonyme des Automobiles Unic ) was a French automobile manufacturer. He went in 1905 from that of Georges Richard founded automobile company " Soc. Des Anciens Etablissements Georges Richard " out. The origins go back to 1893, when the brothers Georges and Max Richard founded the Société des Cycles Georges Richard bicycle factory . Unic was known among other things as a commercial vehicle manufacturer .

Company history

In the beginning, besides conventional automobiles , taxis and light vans (Camionnettes) were also produced. During the First World War , Unic became famous for taxis of this brand, along with others, that brought soldiers to the front during the First Battle of the Marne . From the 1920s, trucks with a payload of three tons followed, and later also with a payload of up to eleven tons. From 1932, the trucks were with diesel engines for Mercedes-Benz offered -type. In 1934 Unic took over the patents of Adolphe Kégresse on the same chain drive by Citroën after the automobile manufacturer from Paris in bankruptcy had fallen and by the tire manufacturer Michelin has been adopted. From 1938, Unic offered the first self-developed diesel engines.

With the beginning of the Second World War in autumn 1939, the production of cars was stopped. Instead, the production of military vehicles , which had already started in the late 1930s for the French army, such as the half-track vehicles Unic P107 (since 1937) and Unic TU1 (since 1939) for the German Wehrmacht was continued. After the Second World War, Unic joined forces with Camions Bernard , Delahaye , Laffly and Simca to form GFA (Générale Français Automobile), from which Simca and Unic left again in 1951. In 1945 Unic offered the new ZU series with a short - nosed cab .

From 1952 Unic worked with Simca, who took over the truck sector from Ford France in 1954 . From 1955, Unic produced the Simca Cargo truck for Simca, which it had taken over from Ford . Four years later, in 1956, Unic took over its competitor Saurer France, which was in serious financial difficulties. After Chrysler Europe took over Simca and Unic in 1958, Unic became a division of Simca, and from 1960 the cargo was marketed as Unic Cargo . A cooperation agreement with Willème , also concluded in 1958, was terminated after a year.

In 1966 the Simca truck sector was taken over by Fiat . From that point on, the Fiat and OM trucks in France were sold through the Unic organization. In 1969, the V 85 S appeared, a diesel engine that was very powerful for that time with a displacement of 14.9 liters and an output of 340 hp. The tilting forward control cab was replaced in 1970 by the likewise tilting Fiat cab. The planetary axles from Fiat / OM were installed in the three-axle vehicles. In 1973, after 68 years, production was relocated from Puteaux and Suresnes to Trappes in close cooperation with Fiat . In Trappes, the most modern truck factory in Europe produced Unic models until 1976. After this point in time, only mid-range trucks were produced for the Iveco group.

In 1975 Fiat bundled its commercial vehicle activities with the involvement of its subsidiaries OM , Lancia and the now majority-owned Magirus-Deutz to form the Iveco Group . This also made the Unic truck brand part of Iveco. As a result of a group-wide exchange of models, truck models originally developed by Fiat, OM or Magirus-Deutz were also sold in France as Unic.

In the 1980s, Fiat and Unic produced a 75 hp four-wheel drive model that was mainly used by the military , fire services and civil protection . Production at Unic in France was discontinued in 1987, the brand name Unic also disappeared on the truck and from now on it was only called Iveco.

There is a small museum in Ziefen , Switzerland , in which vehicles and engines from Unic are on display.

literature

Web links

Commons : Unic  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georgano: The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile.
  2. ↑ Unic Museum in Ziefen near Basel