Peugeot

Like Opel, Peugeot did not manufacture cars in the early years of its existence. The company was founded as Peugeot Frères in 1810, when Jean-Pierre II and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot inherited a fabric dyeing shop, an oil mill and a grain mill from their father. They converted the grain mill into a metal foundry, where things like coffee mills, band saws, springs, umbrella frames, mopeds, bicycles, and so on are manufactured.

The first car with the Peugeot brand name, a three-wheeled steam car, appeared in 1889. The Peugeot Type 3 from 1891 is the world’s first series-produced car. The independent (Automobiles) Peugeot is founded in 1896. The 1912 small Bb Peugeot was a design by Ettore Bugatti. In 1929 Peugeot introduces the 201 and that is the car with which Peugeot introduces the three-digit model designations with the 0 in the middle. In 1960, the 404 was the first car to be available with petrol direct injection. In the 1960s and 1970s, many Peugeot models were designed by the Italian design house Pininfarina.

In 1974 Peugeot took a 30 percent share in Citroën and in 1975 it took over the brand completely. The resulting concern was called PSA (Peugeot Société Anonyme). In 1978 PSA took over Chrysler’s European arm (Simca and the Rootes brands) and renamed it Talbot, but that name disappeared in 1992 and the UK factory closed in 2007. Since the end of 2013, the Peugeot family still has a 14 percent share in the company, just like the French state and the Chinese DongFeng Motors.