Another contribution to profit is the introduction of ground breaking vehicles, such as the monospace trio, Twingo, Scenic and Espace, and also the Kangoo which combines passenger car with commercial mini van. Who say a state-owned company is never good at innovation ? 

However, without the backing from the Government, the take over of Nissan would not have been possible. Renault acquired controlling stakes of the debt-burdened Nissan in 1999. In just 3 years time, the French CEO Carlos Ghosn successfully turned Nissan's balance sheet into black and then achieved the highest return rate in the industry. This compensates for the slightly softened business of its mother company in recent years. The success is again driven by simplified management, lean production method and reduced platforms.

Renault acquired controlling stakes in Romanian car maker, Dacia, in mid-1999. The cheap labor cost there could benefit the production of small cars. Likewise, the takeover of Samsung (the smallest Korean car maker) adds a low-cost but modern plant that give access to the relatively enclosed Korean market. 

The famous sports car brand, Alpine, which was acquired in 1973, had been effectively dead since 1995 as the last Alpine A610 rolled out of the small factory. Today the facility is being used to build Clio V6.

Having visited Henry Ford in America and saw the expansion of arch-rival Citroen, Louis Renault applied mass production method to his factory in the early 20’s. As a result, production surged to 25,000 cars in 1924. Renault became one of the major car makers in the world. 

Unlike Citroen, Renault built a large range of models, from small cars to luxury cars, also vans, trucks and even tanks. During both World Wars, like many other car makers, it was transformed to be an arsenal producing military vehicles and aircraft engines. In the WW II, it was occupied by German forces (so was the whole France !) and supplied German army. As a result, after the war, Louis Renault was found guilty and was sentenced. Just 20 days later, he died. 

Therefore the company was confiscated and nationalised. The Government-appointed new boss continued expanding the factory and introducing new cars, also eliminated the wide-range policy in pre-war era. The sole mass production model became 4CV, which was a small car produced for some 15 years, from 1947 to 1961. It was succeeded by Renault 4, which helped production rose to 500,000 in 1963. Another successful model, Renault 5, was launched in 1972, then R9 (1982) and Clio (1991). 

1981 saw Renault became the largest car maker in Europe, with a production rate of 2 million cars annually. Perhaps the road was too straight, it sought expansion towards America as well as Scandinavia. Firstly, it took major shareholding in AMC (American Motor Corporation) in 1980, which led to the production of Alliance (Renault 9) and Encore (Renault 11) in the United States. Secondly, it took full control of US truck maker Mack. The American adventure turned out to be a disaster as sales in Europe was also declining. Heavy loss led to the sold out of AMC to Chrysler in 1987, since then Renault did not return to America again. 

A rescue plan was taken by a new boss, which cut heads and simplify the model ranges and company structure. The turbo-pioneering F1 team was closed down. Helped by the introduction of Espace, Clio and Scenic, Renault recovered quickly. 

The management has a clear vision to the future : for survival, more collaboration with competitors should be taken. The PRV V6 engine program was just a small step, followed by the merger with Volvo. Since 1990 they were taking steps to a full merger, but eventually failed because of the opposition from Swedish shareholders and political difficulties within France Government - both of them wanted to take control.  

The French Government started privatising Renault since 1994, leaving a share of 44% today.  

In 1999, Renault eventually succeeded to strengthen itself via merging with the near-bankrupted Nissan. It took over 36.8% stakes of Nissan motor (later increased to 44.4%) and 22.5% Nissan Diesel to form the 4th largest car maker in the world, just behind GM, Ford and Toyota (but could be overtaken by VW soon).  

Meanwhile, it acquired Romanian car maker Dacia by taking 51% ownership.  

In 2000, it took over Korea's Samsung through the link with Nissan. Samsung used to produce cars based on Nissan's design.

The Peugeot family established a solid financial basis since the early 19th century by producing various industrial products, including bicycle. In 1890, just 4 years after Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler’s invention of motor car, Armand Peugeot produced his first 4-wheel motor vehicle based on his quadricycle. It was powered by Daimler’s engine. A few more models were developed before the establishment of "Société des Automobiles Peugeot" in 1896, the company we simply refer to "Peugeot" today. 

Next year, Peugeot also made its own engine. The following years saw some industry’s first : pneumatic tyre (by Michelin), steering wheel and transmission shaft with universal joint (instead of chain). Another stunning design is the Grand Prix car in 1912, which used hemi-spherical combustion chamber with cross-flow head and 4-valves per cylinder driven by twin overhead camshafts. Wow, today this still sounds sophisticated. 

However, in the following decades Peugeot did not create any car as stunning. Without a car like Beetle, Mini, 2CV etc., Peugeot still grew steadily. The 201, which started the naming rule to be followed until today, reached a total run of 140,000 units in 7 years since 1929. 

After World War II, Peugeot continued growing. In 1965, the company underwent massive expansion, becoming Peugeot S.A. (PSA), a holding company controlling all the group's different companies. PSA absorbed the bankrupted Citroen in 1976 and the falling European Chrysler-Simca in 1978. The group replaced the latter by launching a new marque, Talbot, which just survived until 1986. 

The product remained low profile until the arrival of 205 hatchback in 1983, which not only setting a sales record for the group but also thrilled the world with the 205 GTI. 

Citroen 

Citroen : 
Traction Avant - the most advanced car in then 
2CV - a simple yet practical little car, nearly 4 million produced. 
DS - another world's most advanced car 
SM - a rare Citroen GT, powered by Maserati V6.