Renault is a French auto car manufacturing company popular all over the world for making small personal cars to big trucks. Renault is also a partner with Nissan and that makes them forth biggest car manufacturer in the world. Renault also owns other small car makers Renault Samsung Motors and Automobile Dacia, these are Korean and Romanian manufacturers respectively. Renault headquarter is located in Boulogne-Billancourt. The company holds the biggest market in France and their most popular model so far has been Renault Cilo. It is a sleek looking small car.
Renault produced its 1st car back in 1897, two years before it was officially established by three brothers Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault along with Louis’s friends Julian Wyer and Thomas Evert. Louis was ambitious engineer and built few cars even before the establishment of company Societe Renault Freres. Their family business was in textile. Their father owned a textile firm and Louis’s brothers used to work there with their father. After the launch of Renault, Louis convinced his brothers to join him as they already had management skills while working in textile business. Louis was in charge of the designing and manufacturing department while his brothers Marcel and Fernand handled the management of the company. Their 1st car was Renault Voiturette 1CV. The car got success through racing. Louis and Marcel drove the car in races themselves. But tragedy happened when in 1903, Louis’s brother Marcel died during a race. Their first car to win the Grand Prix race was Renault AK 90CV in 1906.
Renault produced their first sedan car in 1899. At that time these were very expensive. Prior to the 1st world war this car manufacturer also produced taxis, buses and cargo vehicles. They also helped Allied forced during the the war by producing vehicles for armed forces. These include tanks, planes and ammunition. For their services the company was honoured by the Allies. By the end of that war, Renault had got the status of the largest private manufacturer in France. With time because of the expensive nature of their cars, Renault struggled and then started manufacturing industrial and agricultural machinery.
After the surrender of France to Germany during the 2nd world war, it was worst time for the Renault as all of their factories were seized by the Germans. Germans asked Louis Renault to build tanks for their army which he refused to do but manufactured trucks for them instead. After the war, French government arrested Louis after being accused of helping the Germans during the war. All of the assets were seized and later Louis died during his sentence in 1944. After that government nationalized Renault and saw exceptional growth.
