Berliet Album (Auto Review Album Number 187)

Author: Rod Ward, Paperback, 31 pages,

In the early years of the 20th century the company established by Marius Berliet made cars which were so advanced that they formed the basis of early Sunbeam cars in England, and Alco cars in the USA. Primarily a car manufacturer, Berliet also made lorries and buses; by the time of the Great War it was the biggest producer of commercial vehicles in France. By the late 1930s the emphasis had changed and it had become a truck company which also made cars. After the Second World War no cars were produced at all. In the postwar years Berliet, now run by Marius’s son Paul, was once again the biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in France. Berliet built the biggest truck in the world in 1957, the T100. In 1967 Berliet lost its independence when it found itself under the same ownership as Citroën, when the company was acquired by Michelin. In 1974, encouraged by the French government, which was promoting auto industry consolidation, Renault acquired Berliet from Michelin. Renault then combined the firm with Saviem, and the Berliet name disappeared after both were absorbed by the RVI group in 1978.