Citroën began with a cheap patent for fishbone-shaped gears spotted in Poland
Shortly after graduating in 1900, André Citroën travelled to Poland, his late mother's homeland, and watched a carpenter cutting gears with a fishbone pattern that ran quieter and more efficiently. He bought the patent for very little, used his inheritance to start a gear business with about ten workers, and later built a carmaker on it.
Wartime munitions work filled his Paris factory, but by 1916 he was planning for peace. Rather than a sophisticated 18-horsepower machine, he decided, much as Henry Ford had, that the opportunity lay in a light, well-made car built in large numbers. Engineer Jules Salomon designed the 10-horsepower Type A, announced in March 1919 barely four months after the armistice; the first customer took delivery on 7 July 1919, and output reached 12,244 cars the following year.
Citroën was a showman. He borrowed a Champs-Élysées showroom at number 42, still used by the brand, lit up the Eiffel Tower as a record-setting advertising sign, and sent half-tracked vehicles on expeditions across the Sahara, Asia and North America. That Kégresse track system was later licensed to the United States Army, whose M2 and M3 half-tracks ran to more than 41,000 vehicles. In 1925 a Citroën 5CV already showing 48,000 km became the first car driven all the way around Australia.
Innovation kept straining the books. The 1924 B10 had Europe's first all-steel body, and the 1933 Rosalie was the first passenger car on sale with a diesel engine. Then came the 1934 Traction Avant, the first mass-produced car combining front-wheel drive, independent suspension on all four wheels and a unitary body without a separate frame. Rebuilding the factory in five months to make it ruined the company, and in December 1934 it went bankrupt, with tyre maker Michelin, its largest creditor, taking control.
Peugeot bought 89.95% of Citroën in 1976, and the brand has belonged to Stellantis since 2021.
Source: Citroën
