Renault 5 Group B

[Tisham Candella]

Renault also has other subsidiaries as RCI Banque (automotive financing), Renault Retail Group (automotive distribution) and Motrio (automotive parts). Renault has various joint ventures, including Horse Powertrain (engine development), Oyak-Renault (Turkish manufacturing), Renault Nissan Automotive India (Indian manufacturing) and Renault Korea (previously Renault Samsung Motors, South Korean manufacturing). Renault Trucks, previously known as Renault Vhicules Industriels, has been part of Volvo since 2001. Renault Agriculture became 100% owned by German agricultural equipment manufacturer CLAAS in 2008.

Renault is known for its role in motor sport, particularly rallying, Formula 1 and Formula E. Its early work on mathematical curve modeling for car bodies is important in the history of computer graphics.[12]

The Renault corporation was founded on 25 February 1899 as Socit Renault Frres by Louis Renault and his brothers Marcel and Fernand.[9][13] Louis was a bright, aspiring young engineer who had already designed and built several prototypes before teaming up with his brothers, who had honed their business skills working for their father's textile firm. While Louis handled design and production, Marcel and Fernand managed the business.[14]

In 1903, Renault began to manufacture its own engines; until then it had purchased them from De Dion-Bouton. The first major volume sale came in 1905 when Socit des Automobiles de Place bought Renault AG1 cars to establish a fleet of taxis.[16] These vehicles were later used by the French military to transport troops during World War I which earned them the nickname "Taxi de la Marne."[17] By 1907, a significant percentage of London and Paris taxis had been built by Renault.[16] Renault was also the best-selling foreign brand in New York in 1907 and 1908.[18] In 1908 the company produced 3,575 units, becoming the country's largest car manufacturer.[16]

The brothers recognised the value of publicity that participation in motor racing could generate for their vehicles. Renault made itself known through succeeding in the first city-to-city races held in Switzerland, producing rapid sales growth. Both Louis and Marcel raced company vehicles, but Marcel was killed in an accident during the 1903 Paris-Madrid race.[19] Although Louis never raced again, his company remained very involved, including Ferenc Szisz winning the first Grand Prix motor racing event[20] in a Renault AK 90CV in 1906.

Louis took full control of the company as the only remaining brother in 1906 when Fernand retired for health reasons.[14] Fernand died in 1909 and Louis became the sole owner, renaming the company Socit des Automobiles Renault (Renault Automobile Company).[9][16]

Renault manufactured buses and commercial cargo vehicles in the pre-war years. The first real commercial truck from the company was introduced in 1906.[23] During World War I, it branched out into ammunition, military aircraft engines[16] (the first Rolls-Royce aircraft engines were modeled and inspired by Renault air-cooled aircraft V8 units)[24][25] and vehicles such as the revolutionary Renault FT tank.[21] The company's military designs were so successful that Louis was awarded the Legion of Honour for his company's contributions.[26] The company exported engines to American automobile manufacturers for use in such automobiles as the GJG, which used a Renault 26 horsepower (19 kW) or 40 hp (30 kW) four-cylinder engine.[27]

Louis Renault enlarged Renault's scope after 1918, producing agricultural and industrial machinery. The war from 1914 until 1918 led to many new products.[28] The first Renault tractor, the Type GP was produced between 1919 and 1930. It was based on the FT tank.[29] Renault struggled to compete with the increasingly popular small, affordable "people's cars," while problems with the United States stock market and the workforce slowed the company's growth. Renault also had to find a way to distribute its vehicles more efficiently. In 1920, Louis signed one of its first distribution contracts with Gustave Gueudet, an entrepreneur from Amiens, France which they still maintain a relationship.

The pre-First World War cars had a distinctive front shape caused by positioning the radiator behind the engine to give a so-called "coal scuttle" bonnet. This continued through the 1920s.[30] Only in 1930 did all models place the radiator at the front. The bonnet badge changed from circular to the familiar and continuing diamond shape in 1925. The practice of installing the radiator behind the engine against the firewall continued during the 1950s and 1960s on vehicles where the engine was installed longitudinally in the rear of the vehicle.

Renault introduced new models at the Paris Motor Show, which was held in September or October of the year. This led to confusion about model years. For example, a "1927" model was mostly produced in 1928.

Renault cars during this time period had two model lines; the economy four-cylinder engine models that in the 1930s became the suffix "Quatre" and the luxury six-cylinder models that were initially sold with the suffix "-six" that later became the suffix "Stella." For example, in 1928, when Renault produced 45,809 cars, its seven models started with a 6CV, a 10CV, the Monasix, 15CV, the Vivasix, the 18/22CV and the 40CV. Renault offered eight body styles. The longer rolling chassis were available to coachbuilders. The smaller were the most popular while the least produced was the 18/24CV. The most expensive body style in each range was the closed car. Roadsters and tourers (torpedoes) were the cheapest.

Cars were conservatively engineered and built. The Renault Vivasix, model PG1, was sold as the "executive sports" model beginning in 1927. Lighter weight factory steel bodies powered by a 3,180 cubic centimetre (cc) six-cylinder motor provided a formula that lasted until the Second World War.

The straight 8-cylinder Reinastella was introduced in 1929 and expanded to a range culminating in 1939 Suprastella. Coachbuilders included Kellner, Labourdette, J. Rothschild et Fils and Renault bodies. Closed car Renault bodies were often trimmed with interior woodwork by Rothschild.

In 1928, Renault introduced an upgraded specification to its "Stella" line. The Vivastella's and Grand Renaults had upgraded interior fittings and a small star fitted above the front hood logo. This proved to be a winning differentiator and in the 1930s all cars changed to the Stella suffix from the previous two alpha character model identifiers.

The Grand Renaults were built using a considerable amount of aluminium. Engines, brakes, transmissions, floor and running boards and all external body panels were aluminium. Of the few that were built, many went to scrap to aid the war effort.

Renault was one of the few French vehicle manufacturers that pursued the production of aircraft engines after World War I. In the late 1920s, it attempted to produce a high-power military engine to compete with the American Pratt & Whitney units, which proved unsuccessful, although its civil engines achieved better results.[33]In the 1930s, the company took over the aircraft manufacturer Caudron, focusing its production in small airplanes,[33] acquired a stake in Air France and partnered to establish the airmail company Air Bleu.[34] Renault Caudron airplanes settled several speed world records during the 1930s. Renault continued developing tanks as part of France's rearming effort, including the D1 and the FT's replacement, the R 35.[35]

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Renault was surpassed by Citron as the largest car manufacturer in France. Citron models at the time were more innovative and popular than Renault's.[36] However, by mid-1930s the French manufacturers were hit by the Great Depression. Renault could initially offset losses through its tractor, railroad and weaponry businesses, while Citron filed for bankruptcy, and was later acquired by Michelin.[34] Renault became again the largest car manufacturer, a position it would keep until the 1980s.[34]

Renault was finally affected by the Great Depression economic crisis in 1936. The company spun off Caudron and its foundry and aircraft engine divisions into related but autonomous operations, keeping its core automotive business.[34] Between 1936 and 1938, a series of labour disputes, strikes, and worker unrest spread throughout the French automobile industry.[37] The disputes were eventually quashed by Renault in a particularly intransigent way, and over 2,000 people lost their jobs.[37][38]

After the French capitulation in 1940, Louis Renault refused to produce tanks for Nazi Germany, which took control of his factories. As Renault was manufacturing the Renault UE tank for the Allies, he produced trucks instead. On 3 March 1942, the British Royal Air Force (RAF) launched 235 low-level bombers at the le Seguin, Billancourt, Paris plant, the largest number aimed at a single target during the war.[39] 460 metric tons (450 long tons; 510 short tons) of bombs were dropped on the plant and the surrounding area, causing extensive damage along with heavy civilian casualties.[40] Renault resolved to rebuild the factory as quickly as possible, but bombardments continued a year later, on 4 April, this time delivered by the Americans, and on 3 and 15 September 1943.[40]

A few weeks after the Liberation of Paris, at the start of September 1944, the factory gates at Renault's Billancourt plant reopened.[40] Operations restarted slowly, in an atmosphere poisoned by plotting and political conspiracy.[40] In 1936, the Billancourt factory had been the scene of violent political and industrial unrest that had surfaced under Lon Blum's Popular Front government. The political jostling and violence that followed liberation ostensibly reflected the rivalries between capitalist collaboration and communist resistance; many of the scores settled predated the invasion.[40]

Responding to the chaotic situation at Renault, a 27 September 1944 meeting of the Council of Ministers (fr) took place under de Gaulle's presidency. Postwar European politics had quickly become polarised between communists and anti-communists, and in France de Gaulle was keen to resist Communist Party attempts to monopolise the political dividends available to resistance heroes: politically Billancourt was a communist stronghold. The government decided to "requisition" the Renault factories.[40] A week later, on 4 October, Pierre Lefaucheux, a resistance leader with a background in engineering and top-level management, was appointed provisional administrator of the firm, assuming his responsibilities at once.[40]

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