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64-529: The Grégoire is a luxury car produced from 1950 to 1954 by the French automaker Hotchkiss . Only about 247 were produced, with serial numbers 500 to 747. The Grégoire was a modern-looking four-door saloon. Reportedly as a response to disappointing sales for the saloon, special-bodied coach-built coupé and cabriolet versions also appeared at the 1952 Paris Motor Show , including a streamlined Grégoire-based coupé with an eye-catching 'panoramic' rear window bodied by

128-540: 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,

192-481: 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

256-468: A day. The Ministry of Aircraft Production took over the plant putting in managers from Supermarine and placing it under Vickers-Armstrongs (of which Supermarine was a part) supervision. After a major air raid damaged the Morris Bodies factory, the premises switched to the production of jerry cans , producing millions of these versatile containers for use during the rest of the war and following

320-528: A facelifted Marina) was the last Morris-badged passenger car, with production ending in the summer of 1984. The last Morris of all was a van variant of the Austin Metro , before the Morris brand was finally completely abandoned in 1987. After much restructuring of BL in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the former Morris plant at Cowley and its sister site the former Pressed Steel plant were turned over to

384-426: A further issue of ordinary shares to him, the car manufacturing businesses of Wolseley Motors Limited and The MG Car Company Limited. A separate private company, Wolseley Aero Engines Limited , was then formed to continue the development of his aviation interests. In 1936 Lord Nuffield sold Morris Commercial Cars Limited , his commercial vehicle enterprise, to Morris Motors. In 1938 William Morris, Baron Nuffield

448-768: 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

512-498: 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

576-508: A man who had spent much time during the war working on the application of aluminium to car production. Directly after the war, with European demand for war planes abruptly curtailed, the recently developed aluminium industry found opportunities in the more radical designs coming out of the automotive sector, and the Hotchkiss Grégoire was notable for its lightweight chassis, which incorporated much aluminium. The car also featured

640-522: A much-needed 4-seat version of the car. White and Poppe , who made the engine, were unable to supply the volume of units that Morris required, so Morris turned to Continental of Detroit, Michigan for the supply of a 1548 cc engine. Gearboxes and axles were also sourced in the US. In spite of the outbreak of the First World War the orders were maintained and, from mid-1915 a new larger car,

704-406: A new 2180 cc horizontal boxer water-cooled four-cylinder engine capable of delivering a claimed 70 or, from 1952, 75 HP. The flat-four engine permitted a low bonnet/hood line but was fitted well forward which enforced an extensive front overhang. The gear box was a four-speed unit with synchromesh on the upper three ratios and overdrive on the fourth. The Grégoire’s commercial performance

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768-407: A planned launch in 2021 under the re-launched Morris Commercial marque, well over 30 years after the Morris brand had disappeared. WRM Motors Ltd began in 1912 when bicycle manufacturer William Morris moved on from the sale, hire, and repair of cars to car manufacturing. He planned a new light car assembled from bought-in components. In this way he was able to retain ownership by keeping within

832-471: A proper moving assembly line and creating Europe's largest integrated car plant. But Morris and Lord fell out, and after 15 years Lord left in 1936—threatening to "take Cowley apart brick by brick". Lord moved to Austin and they were to meet again in BMC—Morris, as Lord Nuffield, its first chairman. Lord succeeded him. As of 1 July 1935 Morris Motors acquired from W R Morris, now Lord Nuffield, in exchange for

896-578: A separate MG factory was soon established south of Oxford in Abingdon, Oxfordshire . Having admired Budd's all-steel bodies Morris founded The Pressed Steel Company of Great Britain Limited in 1926 as a joint venture with Edward G Budd Manufacturing Company - Budd International of Philadelphia, USA. Pressed Steel's factory was located over the road from Morris's factory at Cowley and supplied Morris and many other motor manufacturers. Morris withdrew from

960-782: Is owned and operated by BMW, who use it to assemble the new MINI . The history of William Morris's business is commemorated in the Morris Motors Museum at the Oxford Bus Museum . Post-Morris cars to have been built at Cowley include the Austin/MG Maestro , Austin/MG Montego , Rover 600 , Rover 800 and (for a short time) the Rover 75 . Following the bankruptcy of the MG Rover Group in 2005, three competing bids were launched aiming to acquire

1024-542: The British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC), and subsequently, in 1975, the nationalised British Leyland Limited (BL). The Cowley complex remained the second largest single facility in the BL empire (after Longbridge ), but BL's history was a turbulent one – BMC was close to financial ruin, and the newly installed Leyland management failed to turn its fortunes around. With the replacement for

1088-643: The British Motor Corporation in 1952, the Morris name remained in use until 1984, when the by-then Austin Rover Group decided to concentrate on the more popular Austin brand as well as expanding the more upmarket Rover brand. Until 2014, Morris Oxford vehicles (based on the 1954-59 Oxford) were manufactured with periodic enhancements in India by Hindustan Motors , and sold well there, even being imported to Britain in small numbers during

1152-667: 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

1216-842: The Morris Marina and Leyland Princess being delayed into the 1980s, the Marina was restyled in 1980 to become the Morris Ital, while the Princess was restyled for 1982 to become the Austin Ambassador . British Leyland later confirmed that the Morris brand would be discontinued on the all-new replacement for these two cars, which was finally launched in April 1984 as the Austin Montego . The Morris Ital (essentially

1280-703: The Nuffield Organization merged with its old rival the Austin Motor Company to form the British Motor Corporation (BMC). Nuffield brought the Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley marques into the merger. Leonard Lord was in charge, which led to Austin's domination of the organisation. Badge-engineering was important to BMC and for many years the various marques would be seen on several families of similar vehicles. In 1966, BMC acquired Jaguar to create British Motor Holdings (BMH), which subsequently merged with Leyland Motors in 1968 to form

1344-468: The coachbuilder Henri Chapron . For more than thirty years, each new Hotchkiss had represented a gentle evolution from the previous model. With the Grégoire the company made a radical bid to create a new generation of cars. The car carried the name of its designer, Jean-Albert Grégoire , a man who had made his name in the 1930s as a car designer, with experience in designing front-wheel-drive cars, and

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1408-464: 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

1472-589: The 1990s. Part of Morris's manufacturing complex at Cowley, Oxford is now BMW Group 's Plant Oxford , factory of the MINI marque since its launch in 2001. The Morris trademark is currently owned by the China-based automotive company SAIC after being transferred from bankrupt subsidiary Nanjing Automotive . The Morris Commercial JE, an electric van with a 1940s design, was unveiled in November 2019 ahead of

1536-507: 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

1600-513: The 2-seat and 4-seat Morris Cowley was introduced. After the war the Continental engine was no longer available so Morris arranged for Hotchkiss of France to make a near copy in their Coventry factory. This was used to power new versions of the basic Cowley and more up-market Morris Oxford cars. With a reputation for producing high-quality cars and a policy of cutting prices, Morris's business continued to grow and increase its share of

1664-617: 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

1728-493: 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

1792-588: The British Empire. Both-Nuffield respirators were able to be produced by the thousand at about one-thirteenth the cost of the American design. In the summer of 1938 Morris agreed to build, equip and manage at government expense a huge new factory at Castle Bromwich specifically to manufacture Supermarine Spitfires . with intention to build bombers later. Nuffield's management failed; no Spitfires were delivered by May 1940 despite expectation of 60

1856-560: The British market overtaking Ford to become in 1924 the UK's biggest car manufacturer, holding a 51% share of the home market and remaining enormously profitable. Possessed of a very large cash income Morris had a policy of personally buying up suppliers' businesses. For example, in 1923 he bought Hotchkiss's Coventry business which later became Morris Engines branch. He also brought in F G Woollard which became Morris Commercial Cars to lead

1920-507: 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

1984-772: 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

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2048-610: 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

2112-529: The Hotchkiss P4R Crotale missile delivery vehicle were transferred to Brandt. The provision of spare parts for 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 . Morris Motors MG Rover Group (2000–2005) Morris Motors Limited

2176-471: The Hotchkiss board. There 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

2240-506: The Hotchkiss business. The suggestion from Lehideux derived from 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

2304-779: The Morris C4 truck, Morris ML ambulance, 500 Morris Commercial 8x8 GS Terrapin (amphibious vehicle)s , and the Morris Commercial CD series trucks. Production restarted after the Second World War, with the pre-war Eight and Ten designs. In 1948 the Eight was replaced by what is probably the most famous Morris car, the Morris Minor designed by Alec Issigonis (who later went on to design the Mini ) and reusing

2368-558: 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

2432-468: The bounds of his own capital resources. A factory was opened in 1913 at former Oxford Military College at Cowley, Oxford , United Kingdom where Morris's first car, the 2-seat Morris Oxford "Bullnose" , was assembled. Nearly all the major components were bought in. In 1914 a coupé and van were added to the line-up, but the Bullnose chassis was too short and the 1018 cc engine too small to make

2496-475: 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

2560-537: The company's assets. One of the bids, led by Maserati CEO Martin Leach alongside Chinese state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation (SAIC) , included plans for a Morris Minor revival. Despite this, the bid was lost to the Nanjing Automobile Corporation and the new Minor was not produced, although Nanjing Automobile Corporation later merged with SAIC, with all assets, including

2624-439: The early 1950s in the French market, which heavily penalised larger cars. At the 1952 Paris Motor Show , it was obvious that several French luxury auto-makers like Delahaye clearly were in trouble. It was noted that for the Grégoire, despite its upmarket aspirations, the company was only able to distribute a very skimpy brochure, provided without any colour pictures. By 1953 output had slowed and only about 40 were produced, and by

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2688-548: The ending of hostilities. The Cowley plant was turned over to aircraft repair and production of Tiger Moth pilot trainers, as well as "mine sinkers" based on a design produced at the same plant during the First World War. Morris produced the popular Morris C8 Quad artillery prime mover towing artillery (such as the 25-pounder ) and anti-tank guns (such as the 17-pounder ) with some 10,200 made. Morris also produced some 2200 Morris Light Reconnaissance Cars , 100 Morris CS9 armoured cars, 21,319 Morris CS8 15cwt light trucks,

2752-529: 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

2816-424: 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

2880-401: 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,

2944-406: 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

3008-614: The production of Austin and Rover-badged vehicles. They continued to be used by BL's Austin Rover Group and its successor the Rover Group , which was eventually bought by BMW , and then by a management consortium, leading to the creation of MG Rover . None of the former Morris buildings now exist. British Aerospace sold the site in 1992; it was then demolished and replaced with the Oxford Business Park. The adjacent former Pressed Steel site (now known as Plant Oxford)

3072-513: The re-organization of their engine production from batch to flow, thus increasing output from less than 300 units per week to 1200. By 1924 the factory was making 2000 units a week with only a small increase in work space and labour force. Cecil Kimber , head of Morris's own original 1909-founded Morris Garage sales hire and repair operation in Oxford, began building sporting versions of Morris cars in 1924 labelling them MG . They were so successful

3136-592: The small car market helped Morris through the economic depression of the 1930s. At the 1934 London Motor Show the Minor was replaced by the Morris Eight , a direct response to the Ford Model Y and, though Leonard Lord's handiwork, heavily based on it. In 1932 W R Morris appointed Lord Managing Director of Morris Motors Limited and Lord swept through the Morris works, updating the production methods, introducing

3200-450: The small car name from 1928. The Ten was replaced by a new 1948 Morris Oxford MO , styled like a larger version of the Minor. A later Morris Oxford (the 1956 Morris Oxford III) was the basis for the design of India's Hindustan Ambassador , which continued in production until 2014. They used six engines and five (and a half) car bodies, of which the "specialist" three were obsolescent, the rest very closely related if not identical. In 1952

3264-590: The time production ceased towards the end of that year, only 247 Hotchkiss Grégoires had been built; of these 235 had been four-door saloons. Automobiles Hotchkiss 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

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3328-453: 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

3392-521: 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

3456-533: The venture in mid-1930. Budd sold their share to British interests at the beginning of 1936. The small car market was entered in 1928 with the Leonard Lord -designed Morris Minor , using an 847 cc engine from Morris's newly acquired Wolseley Motors . Lord had been sent there to modernise the works and Wolseley's products. The Minor was to provide the base for the MG Midgets . This timely spread into

3520-415: The war, like many businesses in 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

3584-542: Was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris 's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same vehicles. By 1926 its production represented 42 per cent of British car manufacture—a remarkable expansion rate attributed to William Morris's practice of buying in major as well as minor components and assembling them in his own factory. Although it merged with Austin Motor Company to form

3648-441: Was affected by the company's 30-year record of producing worthy but conservative saloons. High development costs had to be amortised over the number of cars sold, and the low sales level led to a high retail price which, in turn, depressed sales further. By 1952 the Grégoire was retailing for twice the price of the similarly sized six-cylinder Citroën Traction 15CV . An additional challenge came from government taxation policies during

3712-689: 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

3776-563: 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

3840-527: Was raised to Viscount Nuffield. The same year he transferred his newly acquired Riley car business to Morris Motors Limited for £100. Visiting London in 1938 during a polio epidemic Lord Nuffield saw a Both Iron Lung in use. He commissioned an improved design which could be produced using the techniques of car assembly and arranged production of approximately 1700 machines at the Cowley works, which he donated to hospitals throughout all parts of Britain and

3904-442: 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

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3968-408: 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

4032-406: 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),

4096-589: 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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