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63-413: The company's first entry into car making came from orders for engine components such as crankshafts which were supplied to Panhard et Levassor , De Dion-Bouton and other pioneering companies and in 1903 they went on to make complete engines. Encouraged by two major car distributors, Mann & Overton of London and Fournier of Paris, Hotchkiss decided to start making their own range of cars and purchased

126-540: A Mercedes Simplex for inspiration. Georges Terasse, previously of Mors , was taken on as designer. The first Hotchkiss car, a 17 CV four-cylinder model, appeared in 1903. The engine of the 20 CV type C was heavily based on the Mercedes Simplex except that wherever possible it used ball bearings rather than plain ones (including the crankshaft) and except the Hotchkiss drive. Six-cylinder models,

189-559: A Daimler engine license. Levassor obtained his licence from Paris lawyer Edouard Sarazin, a friend and representative of Gottlieb Daimler 's interests in France. Following Sarazin's 1887 death, Daimler commissioned Sarazin's widow Louise to carry on her late husband's agency. The Panhard et Levassor license was finalised by Louise, who married Levassor in 1890. Daimler and Levassor became friends, and shared improvements with one another. These first vehicles set many modern standards, but each

252-465: A German law dated 18 October 1940 authorising the confiscation of businesses controlled by Jews. The Peugeot business itself had been operating, grudgingly, under overall German control since the summer of 1940. In any event, in July 1942 Peugeot took a controlling share in the Hotchkiss business, and towards the end of 1942 the names of Peugeot and Jordan were listed as members of the Hotchkiss board. There

315-481: A brief hiatus. Although most cars had bodies that were factory built, Hotchkiss still was a luxury car brand, and so coachbuilder Veth and Sons built a small number of bodies for the AM80. The AM models were replaced by a new range in 1933 with a new naming system. The 411 was an 11CV model with four-cylinder engine, the 413 a 13CV four and the 615, 617 and 620 were similar six-cylinder types. The 1936 686, which replaced

378-689: A controversial decision which sparked a hostile reaction that encouraged Ford to sell its French arm to Simca in 1954. Lehideux defended his involvement in Vichy after the war. He also became involved in the Association for the Defence of the Memory of Marshal Pétain , a group that campaigned for a reassessment of Petain. At his death at the age of 95 in June 1998 Lehideux was the final surviving minister of

441-713: A joint venture with the Standard Motor Company to manufacture the Ferguson TE20 tractor in the Saint-Denis plant. Between 1953 and 1957, Standard-Hotchkiss built over 37,000 TE20 tractors there, nicknamed Petit Gris ("Little Grey") in France. In January 1957, the model reached full local parts content and was accordingly renamed the FF-30 , for "Ferguson France, 30 horsepower". FF-30 production ended in 1958, after nearly 29,000 had been built. Standard

504-496: A little more rapidly with 460 Hotchkiss cars produced that year. This volume of output was wholly insufficient to carry the company, although truck production was a little more successful with more than 2,300 produced in 1948, and it was support from the truck volumes and from the Jeep based M201 that enabled the company to stagger on as a car producer slightly more convincingly than some of France's other luxury car makers, at least until

567-503: A new body, the Direction Générale de l'équipement nationale , the purpose of which was to improve the economy and overcome high unemployment. In his role as leader of this body Lehideux produced a ten-year plan for the economic development and growth of France, which somehow inspired the plan Monnet after the war. Lehideux served as Minister of Industrial Production, resigning when Pierre Laval returned to government. He

630-510: A year earlier. Publicity of the time indicated the "S" stood for "Voitures surbaissées" (cars having an "underslung" chassis, ) but, clearly captivated by the power of alliteration, added that "S" also indicated cars that were "...souples, supérieures, stables, spacieuses, silencieuses, sans soupapes (i.e., using valveless cylinders)...". Four of the five Panhards exhibited featured increasingly lavish and pricey 6-cylinder engined cars, their engine sizes ranging from 2.35-litres to 3.5-litres. There

693-443: Is no evidence of any attempt to combine the operations of the two businesses, however: after the war Peugeot would in due course relinquish their holding in Hotchkiss. With liberation in 1944, Ainsworth returned, and production restarted in 1946 with the pre-war cars, a light truck and a tractor. After the war, car production resumed only slowly with fewer than 100 cars produced in each of 1946 and 1947, but by 1948 things were moving

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756-667: The Front Populaire government. The car company in 1937 took over Amilcar . With re-armament speeding up they also started making military vehicles and light tanks. When France declared war , in September 1939, Hotchkiss were sitting on an army order for 1,900 H35 and H39 tanks powered by six-cylinder motors of respectively 3.5 and 6 litres capacity, and at the time of the German invasion in May 1940 they were still working through

819-508: The M201 Jeep was picked up by Hotchkiss' erstwhile subsidiary Sofia ("(la Société Financière Industrie et Automobile"), while the petrol truck engine manufacturing line was transferred to Berliet . Panhard Panhard was a French motor vehicle manufacturer that began as one of the first makers of automobiles . It was a manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its final incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense ,

882-695: The Panhard rod , which came to be used in many other types of automobiles as well. From 1910 Panhard worked to develop engines without conventional valves, using under license the sleeve valve technology that had been patented by the American Charles Yale Knight . Between 1910 and 1924 the Panhard & Levassor catalogue listed plenty of models with conventional valve engines, but these were offered alongside cars powered by sleeve valve power units. Following various detailed improvements to

945-669: The Paris–Bordeaux–Paris race, one piloted solo by Levassor, for 48¾hr. However, during the 1896 Paris–Marseille–Paris race, Levassor was fatally injured due to a crash while trying to avoid hitting a dog, and died in Paris the following year. Arthur Krebs succeeded Levassor as General Manager in 1897, and held the job until 1916. He turned the Panhard et Levassor Company into one of the largest and most profitable manufacturers of automobiles before World War I . Panhards won numerous races from 1895 to 1903. Panhard et Levassor developed

1008-532: The Vichy government . In 1929 Lehideux married the daughter of Fernand Renault , and soon became a leading figure in the Renault car company. He was assistant to Louis Renault and in this position convinced the head of the company to employ André Lefèbvre within the development department, Lehideux admiring Lefèbvre's bold ideas and feeling that Renault needed to modernise its designs in order to continue to lead

1071-427: The war . The new Panhard 16CV "Six" came with a 3445cc engine and sat on a 3,540 mm (139.4 in) wheelbase. At the show it was priced, in bare chassis form, at 58,000 francs. Of the nine models displayed for the 1927 model year, seven featured four-cylinder engines, ranging in capacity from 1480cc (10CV) to 4845cc (20CV), and in price from 31,000 francs to 75,000 francs (all in bare chassis form). Also on show

1134-463: The "Compagnie française Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt" which was soon thereafter renamed Thomson-Houston . In 1968, this company was merged with CSF , becoming Thomson-CSF. The Hotchkiss name disappeared in the 1970s as truck manufacturing ended at the end of 1970 and was gone completely when the later Europa Jeep project was cancelled in 1976. Thomson-CSF, however, did keep using Hothkiss' crossed cannon emblem on their military vehicles. Thomson-CSF

1197-669: The 10HP Panhard Type X19, which used a 4-cylinder 2,140 cc (131 cu in) engine. This was followed three months later by three more 4-cylinder models which will have been familiar to any customers whose memories pre-dated the war , but they now incorporated upgraded electrics and a number of other modifications. For the 15th Paris Motor Show , in October 1919, Panhard were displaying four models, all with four cylinder engines, as follows: By 1925, all Panhard's cars were powered by Knight sleeve valve engines that used steel sleeves . The steel sleeves were thinner and lighter than

1260-454: The 2,312 cc overhead-valve four-cylinder engine familiar from the 486 passenger car. Called the 486 PL (PLL in the case of the long wheelbase model), 163 examples had been built by the time production was halted in June 1940 due to the outbreak of war. After the war, this was updated with an all-steel cab in 1946, becoming the PL20 , for two tonnes' payload. The 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine

1323-534: The 24BT being a version of the same with a longer wheelbase and space for four. For a period after the war, the Panhard-based Monopole racing cars received unofficial support from Panhard (as did DB and other clients such as Robert Chancel), using it to good effect in winning the "Index of Performance" class at Le Mans in 1950, 1951, and 1952. In 1953, Panhard moved on to a more direct involvement with Chancel, which however came to an end after

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1386-616: The 4.192, producing 60 hp (44 kW). From about 1964 there was also a 6 t (6.6 short tons) version, called the PL55/DH55. French offroad specialists Herwaythorn S.A. also offered a four-wheel-drive conversion of the PL/DH. This was fitted with the Dunlop Pneuride air suspension front and rear, with the air bellows placed at the end of quarter-elliptic leaf springs which acted as radius arms . In 1951, Hotchkiss formed

1449-493: The 620, was available as the high-performance Grand Sport and 1937 Paris-Nice with twin carburettors and these allowed Hotchkiss to win the Monte Carlo Rally in 1932, 1933, 1934, 1939, 1949 and 1950. The new naming scheme introduced in 1936 consisted of the number of cylinders, followed by the bore of the engine (in millimetres). The armament side of the company and the body stamping plant were nationalised in 1936 by

1512-561: The DS19 and Peugeot its 403. Aside from the Grégoire design, Hotchkiss could only offer pre-war designs. Export sales were limited by the failure to provide left-hand-drive cars. One of Hotchkiss' last public acts was displaying a Jeep Wagoneer at the 1969 Paris Salon , with an eye towards assembling it in France, but Hotchkiss had already sold their Stains plant and nothing came of this. Hotchkiss built its first truck in 1936, equipped with

1575-772: The Delahaye brand, and the last Hotchkiss passenger car was built the next year. The resulting Société Hotchkiss-Delahaye briefly built trucks under the combined brand but soon retired the Delahaye name, while replacing production of the Delahaye VLR Jeep with the Hotchkiss M201 , a license-built version of the Willys MB which was manufactured until 1966. In 1956 the company was taken over by weapons and home goods manufacturer Brandt , becoming Hotchkiss-Brandt . This firm then merged with CFTH in 1966, becoming

1638-640: The Germans. However, the national capitulation implicit in the signing of the armistice on 22 June left these efforts looking somewhat irrelevant, and most of the employees drifted back in the ensuing weeks. Two exceptions were the Commercial Director, Jacques Jacobsen, and the English-born General Director, Henry Ainsworth, both of whom managed to avoid capture and to leave France. During the war, like many businesses in

1701-556: The PL20, but once the existing stock of parts were used up, the PL50 switched to a flatter grille. The six-cylinder models (PL50-6) used Hotchkiss' 3.5-liter six, producing 90 hp (66 kW), and were frequently used as fire trucks. Most of the range used the same 2.3-liter four, producing 62 hp (46 kW) - this later increased to 65 hp (48 kW) and then 70 hp (51 kW) by 1962. The first diesel-engined Hotchkiss truck

1764-429: The axle. This device has been widely used on other automobiles or as an aftermarket upgrade to rear axles for vintage American cars. Panhard has supplied more than 18,000 military wheeled vehicles to over 50 countries with a range of combat vehicles weighing less than 10 tonnes, as follows: Fran%C3%A7ois Lehideux François Lehideux (30 January 1904 – 21 June 1998) was a French industrialist and member of

1827-470: The bodies and several other components out of aluminum. Thus the Dyna X and early Dyna Z series 1 had aluminum bodies. Unfortunately, cost calculations by Jean Panhard, the inheriting son and managing director of the firm, failed to account for the extra cost of aluminum vs steel. His calculations were made for the sheet metal panel area actually utilized per body shell, and did not account for the scrap of each of

1890-475: The car division respectively. In 1926 construction of the new factory in the Boulevard Ornano was completed and in 1929 Hotchkiss got hold of a steel press allowing in-house manufacture of steel bodies. The one model policy lasted until 1929 when the six-cylinder AM73 and AM80 models were announced. "73" and "80" stood for the bore of the engines used, a naming theme picked up again later in 1936 after

1953-474: The cast iron ones that had been fitted in Panhard sleeve valve engines since 1910, and this already gave rise to an improved friction coefficient permitting engines to run at higher speeds. To reduce further the risk of engines jamming, the outer sleeves, which are less thermally stressed than the inner sleeves, were coated on their inner sides with an anti-friction material, employing a patented technique with which Panhard engineers had been working since 1923. This

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2016-475: The civilian branch was absorbed by Citroën, and the marque was retired. From 1968 Panhard only made armored vehicles. In 2004, Panhard lost a competition to another manufacturer of military vehicles, Auverland , for the choice of the future PVP of the French Army. This allowed Auverland to purchase Panhard, then a subsidiary of PSA Peugeot Citroën , in 2005. However, the fame of Panhard being greater, it

2079-717: The company built its first all-Levassor design, a "state of the art" model: the Système Panhard consisted of four wheels, a front-mounted engine with rear wheel drive , and a crude sliding-gear transmission, sold at 3500 franc s. (It would remain the standard until Cadillac introduced synchromesh in 1928.) This was to become the standard layout for automobiles for most of the next century. The same year, Panhard et Levassor shared their Daimler engine license with bicycle maker Armand Peugeot , who formed his own car company. In 1895, 1,205 cc (74 cu in) Panhard et Levassor vehicles finished first and second in

2142-477: The company was renamed Panhard (without "Levassor"), and produced light cars such as the Dyna X , Dyna Z , PL 17 , 24 CT and 24 BT . The company had long noted the weight advantages of aluminum, and this as well as postwar government steel rationing (designed to limit new car models to ensure an orderly return to production at the major firms), encouraged the firm to proceed with the expensive alternative of making

2205-463: The company's Cologne location. Along with the likes of Jacques Barnaud , Jean Bichelonne and Pierre Pucheu Lehideux was a member of a group of technocrats who were important in the early days of the Vichy regime. These individuals, sometimes known as jeunes cyclistes , advocated extensive economic reform in order that France could restore its position in Europe. In 1941 he was given charge of

2268-608: The deadly 1955 Le Mans . In the latter half of the 1950s and the early 1960s, the Deutsch Bonnet racers ("DB Panhard") picked up this mantle and went on to dominate the "Index of Performance" as well as other small-engine racing classes. The last Panhard passenger car was built in 1967. After assembling 2CV panel trucks for Citroën to utilize capacity during falling sales, and raising operating cash by selling ownership progressively to Citroën, respectively to its mother company Michelin (full control as of 1965), in autumn of 1967

2331-527: The factory roof. After an attempt to enter the luxury market with the AK, which did not get beyond the prototype stage, the company decided on a one model policy and introduced the Coventry designed AM in 1923. Later that year the Coventry plant was sold to Morris . Henry Mann Ainsworth (1884–1971) and Alfred Herbert Wilde (1889 - 1930), who had run it, moved to Paris to become general manager and chief engineer of

2394-423: The four-door saloon Anjou , was available on the 1350 (renamed from the 486) and 2050 (686) chassis. The high-end Anthéor cabriolet was added in 1952. Some Anthéor and Anjou models were coachbuilt by Swiss coachbuilder Worblaufen , including two four-door Cabriolets. In 1948 Hotchkiss had bought the rights to the Grégoire front-wheel-drive car and the resulting Hotchkiss Grégoire entered production in 1951 but it

2457-400: The mid-1950s. The cars that represented the business in the second half of the 1940s were essentially the company's prewar designs. The 2,312 cc four-cylinder car was now branded as the Hotchkiss 864 while the six-cylinder car was badged as the Hotchkiss 680 with a 3,016 cc engine or as the Hotchkiss 686 with the 3,485 cc engine. The luxury automobile range was modernised in 1950 and a new car,

2520-447: The occupied (northern) zone, the company was obliged to work for the occupiers and was engaged in the repair of military vehicles. In 1941 François Lehideux , then a leading member of the government 's economic team, called Jean-Pierre Peugeot and his General Director Maurice Jordan to a meeting, and invited them to study the possibility of taking a controlling share in the Hotchkiss business. The suggestion from Lehideux derived from

2583-404: The order. However, as the military situation deteriorated the decision was taken, on 20 May 1940, to abandon the Saint-Denis plant which by now was fully concentrated on war production. There was a disorderly evacuation, initially towards Auxerre and then Moulins and then further towards the south, as employees desperately tried to keep information on the military production out of the hands of

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2646-470: The sleeve valve engined Panhard 20HP. General Joffre himself used two 35HP Panhard Type X35s with massive 4-cylinder 7,360 cc (449 cu in) engines for his personal transport, and these were frequently to be seen by Parisians carrying military leaders between the front-line and the Élysée Palace . Following the return to peace in 1918, Panhard resumed passenger car production in March 1919 with

2709-554: The sleeve valve technology by Panhard's own engineering department, from 1924 till 1940 all Panhard cars used sleeve valve engines . Under the presidency of Raymond Poincaré , which ran from 1913 till 1920, Panhard & Levassor's 18CV and 20CV models were the official presidential cars. During the war Panhard, like other leading automobile producers, concentrated on war production, including large numbers of military trucks, V12-cylinder aero-engines, gun components, and large 75 and 105 diameter shells. The military were also keen on

2772-567: The stamping dies. The air-cooled flat-twin engine of the Dyna was used by Georges Irat for his "Voiture du Bled" (VdB) off-road vehicle, built in Morocco in small numbers in the early 1950s. Drawing inspiration from the Panhard Dynavia concept, the styling of the Dyna Z was distinctively smooth and rounded, with an emphasis on aerodynamics and an overall minimalist design. The 24CT was a later (from summer 1963 on) stylish 2+2 seater;

2835-486: The stampings making up the shell. Once in production, a re-examination showed a cost of 55,700fr for aluminum shells and only 15,600fr for steel. The use of aluminum had pushed the firm close to bankruptcy, and a hurried engineering job returned the firm to steel. Thus, the later Dyna Z (from mid September 1955) and the successor PL 17 bodies were steel, and the major stampings retained the heavier gauge intended for durability with aluminum, so as to avoid complete replacement of

2898-754: The story of the French auto-industry, most particularly regarding the Renault business itself, in the post-war decades. Following his unsuccessful pitch for the top job it was Lehideux who now left the company. In October 1940 Lehideux was appointed to the headship of the COA, an organisation charged with smoothing relations between the German authorities and French auto-makers. He is credited with having successfully intervened in 1943 to block German plans to crate up Ford's newly completed car plant at Poissy for shipment to

2961-452: The two-door models. Hotchkiss had made 2,700 cars in 1951. The Grégoire design had integral construction, independent suspension all round, a 2.2 Litre flat-four engine and front wheel drive. Claimed top speed was 95 mph. Buyers did not welcome its smooth shape nor the high price. Endless teething troubles brought production to a complete standstill in 1952. Hotchkiss produced 230 cars of all their models in 1953. In 1955 Citroën introduced

3024-521: The types L and O followed in 1907. The ball bearing engines lasted until the 30CV type X of 1910. In that same year Hotchkiss moved into a smaller car market with the 2212cc type Z. With the outbreak of World War I , the factory turned to war production and a subsidiary plant was opened in Coventry , England. Car production resumed in France 1919 with the pre war types AD, AD6, AF and AG. During World War I, they produced machine guns and tested them from

3087-399: The way in French automobile manufacture. During his time with Renault, Lehideux made no secret of his ambition. A year after the outbreak of war Louis Renault held a meeting, on 3 September 1940, with the country's new leader, of Philippe Pétain , at which Renault received the reassurance he sought that the government wished him to remain at the head of his company. Renault at this time

3150-413: Was a one-off design. They used a clutch pedal to operate a chain-driven gearbox . The vehicle also featured a front-mounted radiator . An 1895 Panhard et Levassor is credited with the first modern transmission . For the 1894 Paris–Rouen Rally , Alfred Vacheron equipped his 4 hp (3 kW) Panhard with a steering wheel , believed to be one of the earliest employments of the principle. In 1891,

3213-455: Was also an 8-cylinder 5.1 L (310 cu in) Panhard Type X67 on display, with a generous 3,590 mm (141.3 in) wheelbase and listed, even in bare chassis form, at 85,000 francs. Panhard et Levassor's last pre-war car was the unusually styled monocoque Dynamic series, first introduced in 1936. Panhard et Levassor also produced railbuses, including some for the metre gauge Chemin de fer du Finistère . After World War II

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3276-636: Was also in negotiations for purchasing the Hotchkiss plant outright, with an eye to building the Triumph Herald in Paris, but the deal fell through. Massey-Ferguson chose to build a new plant in Beauvais , north of Paris, for their next generation of tractors, and thus the Standard connection came to an end. Hotchkiss took over Delahaye , another French luxury car brand, in July 1954. The company immediately discontinued passenger car production under

3339-583: Was an example of the 8-cylinder 6350cc (35CV) "Huit" model which Panhard had offered since 1921 and which at the 1926 show was priced by the manufacturer in bare chassis form at 99,000 francs. When Panhard presented their 1931 line-up at the Paris Motor Show in October 1930, their last two four-cylinder models had been withdrawn, along with the 10CV six-cylinder Type X59. Instead they concentrated on their "S-series" cars, designated " Panhard CS " and "Panhard DS" according to engine size, and introduced

3402-677: Was arrested after the Second World War but freed in 1946. On 17 February 1949 all charges against him were dropped by the High Court of Justice on grounds of "insufficient evidence": He had provided protection for members of the OCF . By now he was returning to a successful career in business. Indeed, the Ford Motor Company appointed him managing director of their French operations in 1950, succeeding Maurice Dollfus ,

3465-455: Was decided to retain the name; the PVP designed by Auverland would bear a Panhard badge. In October 2012, Renault Trucks Defense , division of Swedish Volvo Group since 2001, finalized the acquisition of Panhard for 62.5 million euros. Today the only use of the name Panhard is in the Panhard rod (also called Panhard bar), a suspension link invented by Panhard that provides lateral location of

3528-450: Was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005, and then by Renault in 2012. In 2018 Renault Trucks Defense, ACMAT and Panhard combined under a single brand, Arquus . Panhard was originally called Panhard et Levassor , and was established as an automobile manufacturing concern by René Panhard , Émile Levassor , and Belgian lawyer Edouard Sarazin in 1887. Panhard et Levassor sold their first automobile in 1890, based on

3591-431: Was greatly concerned that his brother's son in law, François Lehideux, was scheming with political contacts to take the top job at Renault. The incident also reflects the extent to which the right wing government of Pétain shared the interventionist approach to industry that had been evident in his left wing predecessor, prime minister Léon Blum , five years earlier. Government interventionism would be an important part of

3654-749: Was nationalized in 1982 to form Thomson SA , eventually becoming the Thales Group . The plant in Stains was sold in 1969; the Jeep production tooling had already been transferred to Spanish Jeep subsidiary Viasa in a deal with Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt . Hotchkiss' independent activities were wound up on 31 December 1970. Civilian truck manufacture was halted, arms manufacture and the Hotchkiss P4R Crotale missile delivery vehicle were transferred to Brandt. The provision of spare parts for

3717-427: Was one of several improvements applied by Panhard engineers to the basic Knight sleeve-valve engine concept. In 1925 a 4,800 cc (290 cu in) model set the world record for the fastest hour run, an average of 185.51 km/h (115.26 mph). A surprise appeared on the Panhard stand at the 20th Paris Motor Show in October 1926, in the shape of the manufacturer's first six-cylinder model since before

3780-440: Was retained, producing 60 hp (44 kW) at 3,000 rpm; this successful model also benefitted from hydraulic brakes. Hotchkiss trucks were all right-hand drive until March 1951, when this was changed to the more typical location on the left. In 1952 the payload was increased to 2.5 t (2.8 short tons) and the name was accordingly changed to PL25 . The PL25 retained the PL20's 3.3 m (130 in) wheelbase. The range

3843-513: Was supplemented by the six-cylinder PL26 in June 1952 and the longer, 3.8-metre (150 in) wheelbase PL25L in January 1953. The PL25 was kept in production until 1964. The heavier, 5.5 t (6.1 short tons) PL50 was introduced in 1956, replacing the PL25. The new range was updated with new front fenders, incorporating the headlights. At first, the facelifted model used the rounded grille from

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3906-516: Was the PL50D (and DL with the long wheelbase); this was fitted with a severely underpowered, dieselized derivative of the 2.3-liter four; as it was unreliable as well, most users swapped for Perkins engines and Hotchkiss themselves soon followed suit. The more powerful DH50 used a 3,153 cc (192.4 cu in) four-cylinder engine from Perkins (whose French plant was also in Saint-Denis),

3969-657: Was very expensive - coming in at more than twice the cost of a Citroën 15/6 , Hotchkiss still lost money on every car sold. Sales in general were falling, and on reaching his 65th birthday in 1949 Ainsworth retired, to be succeeded in the top job by Maurice de Gary. The Peugeot family sold their interest in the company. Coupé and cabriolet versions of the Hotchkiss Grégoire were announced in 1951; handmade by Chapron these were considerably more expensive. Sales and profitability did not improve, and production stopped in 1952 after only 247 had been made, including seven each of

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