Berliet

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Berliet was a French motor vehicle manufacturer. Most recently known for its commercial vehicles , the company was one of the pioneers of automobile construction and also manufactured buses and military vehicles. The construction of cars ended in 1939, after only a modified Peugeot model had been offered. In 1967 Berliet was bought by Citroën and joined Renault in 1974 . In 1978 it was merged with the commercial vehicle division of Renault and Saviem to form Renault Vehicules Industriels (RVI). The Berliet brand name expired in 1980.

history

Automobiles M. Berliet security
Early emblem on the radiator

prehistory

Marius Berliet (1866–1949) expressed the desire to design an automobile at the age of 15. At first there was no time for this and Berliet had to help out in the parents' workshop for hatbands . He began working on his first internal combustion engine in his spare time and at night, which he completed in 1894. The first motor vehicle followed in 1895. This was a light vehicle in which the driver and passenger could be seated one behind the other. This vehicle had an accident during a test drive and Berliet worked on improvements to its design. A second engine followed in 1896 and a second automobile in 1897. Again a two-seater, the new engine was an air-cooled boxer with cooling fins, which was housed in the rear. The vehicle was wide enough for two people to sit side by side.

Simple beginnings

With the support of his mother - his father was still strictly against his plans - he rented a workshop in the La Croix-Rousse district of Lyon in 1899 , where he could only work in the evenings and in his free time, at least with the support of an employee. Towards the end of the 19th century, Lyon developed into a center of French automobile manufacture with brands such as Audibert-Lavirotte , Luc Court , Rochet-Schneider , Cottin-Desgouttes , La Buire , Pilain and Vermorel . Berliet's small manufactory soon became one of them. Initially, vehicles were offered with a single-cylinder engine , from 1900 with a two-cylinder engine. According to another representation, the workshop was in Brotteaux near Lyon (today the place belongs to the 6th arrondissement of the city)

The company expanded rapidly, and so Berliet bought the automobile manufacturer Société Anonyme des Anciens Établissements Audibert et Lavirotte in Monplaisir in 1902 . A four-cylinder model with a tubular steel frame was produced there, which was unusual at the time when most other manufacturers mostly used wood. Emile Lavirotte then took up a job at Berliet.

In 1905 the American Locomotive Company acquired licenses to reproduce Berliet models.

In 1910 the company already had seven branches, producing a range of vehicles from 8 to 60 hp. In 1912 about half of the vehicles manufactured were exported .

In 1915 Berliet organized his company in such a way that everything from steel production to the finished product was in one hand.

During the First World War , Berliet saw his opportunities in the armaments industry . Since there was a great need for military trucks due to the war in France , production was switched to truck manufacture; in 1917 the output was around 40 vehicles per day. Berliet also produced mortar shells during this period.

After the end of the war, the market for commercial vehicles collapsed because, as a result of disarmament, a large number of well-maintained and often repaired army trucks became available at very favorable conditions. This also got Berliet into trouble. After a bankruptcy in 1921, the company was rebuilt. In 1930, Berliet designed its first own diesel engine .

The last car model from 1936 to 1939 was the Berliet Dauphine with a 2-liter engine. Car production ended in 1939, after which Berliet only manufactured commercial vehicles and supplied the French army in large numbers during World War II .

The post-war period saw an expanding company, production increased from 17 trucks per day in 1950 to over 120 vehicles per day in 1970. In 1958 the largest truck in the world, the Berliet T100, was used in the Sahara . The 600 hp semi-trailer truck with a tire diameter of 2.4 m and a dead weight of up to 120 tonnes was designed for the transport of building materials in desert areas. The company saw its opportunities in these same regions, followed by the founding of Berliet Algeria in 1956 and Berliet Morocco in 1958 . In 1965 the company concluded a license agreement with the People's Republic of China for the production of heavy-duty transporters, and in 1969 a bus factory was set up in Cuba . In 1971 40% of production was exported.

In 1967 the company became part of the Citroën group and took over truck production from Citroën.

In 1975 Berliet employed around 24,000 people in the production of trucks and buses, more than 15,000 of them at the Vénissieux Saint-Priest plant near Lyon.

At the instigation of the French state, Berliet was taken over by the Renault group in 1975 and merged in 1978 with the commercial vehicle subsidiary Saviem, which had previously belonged to Renault, to form the new company Renault Véhicules Industriels (RVI) . The two previous brand names were continued until 1980, after which all products were sold with the name Renault, whereby the Berliet brand disappeared from the market.

  • Berliet Cabriolet

  • Last Berliet car Dauphine

  • Berliet trucks

  • Berliet city bus of the 1960s

  • Berliet PR 100 bus

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heavy trucks - A visit to one of the largest commercial vehicle plants in Europe . In: Motor vehicle technology 4/1958, pp. 144–145.

Web links

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