Luis Renault was a mechanic with De Dion when he started playing around with
his De Dion motorcar. He built a new chassis with seperate suspension on all four
wheels and mounted the engine in front instead of the back and replaced the chain
drive with a cardan shaft.
Renault obtained a patant on this configuration and in 1899 he started building his
own cars. Business was good and in 1900 Luis managed to sell more than 200 cars
which was quite an achievement.
France was the largest car manufacturing country in 1903 with 30‘000 cars, 780 of
which were built by 600 workers in the Renault factory. Only ten years later in 1913
more than 10‘000 cars were built by 15‘200 workers. Renault expanded into building
of buses and trucks and during the first world war they also built small tanks and
aircraft engines.
1939 the company introduced self supporting bodies with independent suspension.
In 1940 the company employed more than 40‘000 workers. The Renault Company
was expropriated in 1945 by General de Gaulle.
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