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Berliet was a French manufacturer associated with automobiles, buses, trucks and military cars among other vehicles situated in Vénissieux, outside of Lyon, France. Founded in 1899, and apart from the five-year period from 1944 to 1949 when it turned out put into 'administration sequestre' ıt had been in private ownership until 1967 when it then became part of Citroën, and subsequently acquired through Renault in 1974 and also merged with Saviem in to a new Renault Trucks firm in 1978. The Berliet marque was eliminated by 1980.Marius Berliet started their experiments with automobiles with 1894. Some single-cylinder cars had been followed in 1900 by way of twin-cylinder model. In 1902, Berliet took over the particular plant of Audibert & Lavirotte in Lyon. Berliet started to construct four-cylinder automobiles featured by the honeycomb radiator and steel chassis frame was used rather than wood. The next year, a model was launched that was similar to contemporary Mercedes. In 1906, Berliet sold the permit for manufacturing his model on the American Locomotive Company.

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Prior to World War I, Berliet offered a choice of models from 8 CV to 60 CV. The main models experienced four-cylinder engines (2412 closed circuit and 4398 cc, respectively), and there was a six-cylinder style of 9500 cc. A 1539 cc design (12 CV) had been produced between 1910 in addition to 1912. From 1912, six-cylinder models were produced upon individual orders merely.The First World War triggered a massive increase in demand. Berliet, like Renault and Latil, produced trucks for the actual French army. The military orders placed major demands about the factory's capacity, necessitating major investment throughout production plant and manufacturing area space.In 1915 a 500 hectare site was bought between Vénissieux et Saint-Priest in order to build a new main factory.The Berliet CBA became the iconic truck around the Voie Sacrée, supplying the battle top at Verdun during 1916. 25, 000 of these 4/5 heap Berliet trucks, originally launched in 1914, were ordered by your French army. During 1916 40 of these were leaving the plant daily. Under license from Renault, Berliet were also providing shells and battle tanks right now. The number of employees employed increased to 3, 150.By 1917 the value of annual turnover received multiplied fourfold since the start of the war, and a new lawful structure was deemed correct. The company became your Société anonyme des Autos Marius Berliet.Following war the manufacturer reoriented component of its production back for you to passenger cars, but Berliet nevertheless found themselves with excess potential, as the army was don't buying all the vans the factory could make, and overall output halved.Marius Berliet responded towards the outbreak of peace by deciding to provide just a single kind of truck and a single type of car, which represented a travel from his pre-war market strategy. The single truck what is the best Berliet focused was the 5 ton CBA that had served the nation so well during this war.

Fondation Berliet, Lyon F

The passenger car being produced, exhibited on the Berliet stand with the 15th Paris Motor Demonstrate in October 1919, was the 3296cc (15HP/CV) "Torpedo" bodied "Berliet Kind VB" of modern overall look. Marius Berliet was it's unlikely that any to miss a trick: rather than devote period and engineering talent to developing a new car for the modern decade, he obtained and replicated an American Dodge. The Dodge was notoriously robust, and the Berliet copy was well received within March 1919 when the item had its first open public outing, locally, at the Lyon Buy and sell Fair. The headlights were mounted unusually high and the simple disc wheels ended up large, giving the car a nice "no nonsense" look. Particularly attractive was the cost of just 11, 800 francs in April 1919. Unfortunately, however, the Berliet engineers failed in order that the steel used from the car's construction was from the same quality as the United states steel used for the particular Dodge, and this resulted in series problems for that early customers of your "Berliet Type VB" and serious reputational damage to the company.

Fondation Berliet, Lyon F

Visite de la Fondation BERLIET

The factory had been set up to produce the "Berliet Type VB" at the rate of 100 cars on a daily basis which would have also been an ambitious target under any circumstances. The rapid drop-off widely used for what at this time was the manufacturer's simply passenger car model that followed the standard issues plunged the small business into financial difficulties, with losses of fifty five million francs recorded in a single year. Survival was in hesitation, and Berliet was used in judicial administration in 1921. Marius Berliet himself had held 88% with the share capital, but was unable in order to all the company's creditors and the firm therefore fell into the hands of the finance institutions. Berliet was nevertheless capable of retain operational control. During the ensuring ten years, supported by a sustained recovery popular that in turn reflected an effective model strategy after 1922, Berliet was able to repay his debtors and, in 1929, to regain financial control in the business from the banking institutions.

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