TMW - Renault a potted history

This is just a very brief and concise history of Renault, ready for "The Motoring World's" exclusive look at the new Captur.

In 1899 there was to be a company launched that would, over the following 114 years, prove to be an automotive icon, Louis Renault and his two brothers launched Renault to the world with a Renault Voiturette 1CV car, which was sold to a family friend, from there the company grew, and prospered, it successfully saw of World War one, and in the years between that and the second world war the company continued a growth that would only be curtailed by the invasion of France by the Nazi's in 1940, Louis was ordered by the Germans to make tanks for the occupiers, but refused, instead building trucks.

A number of raids by both the British and American forces damaged the factory enough to slow production by a vast amount, after the war was over, Louis was arrested for collaboration and was due to stand trial in 1944, however he passed away under mysterious circumstances before this trial could begin,  while he was awaiting the trail, General Charles De Gaulle,  took the company into government hands and placed an administrator to run the company.

During the war period Louis was developing a new car to launch once hostilities had ceased, this was developed further after the war and was launched as the Renault 4CV in 1946, and sold over 500,000 in its lifespan which ended in 1961, The famous Dauphine followed and again was a success, but Renault was not standing back and allowing the sales to just accumulate, they were continuing with development and in when the 4CV stopped production the new and extremely modern Renault 4 was launched, this car was to compete with the Citroen 2CV, both cars were very successful and both lasted for nigh on thirty years.











The Renault 4 became a major success for the company and further models followed, including the Renault the R8 and R10, and in 1966 Renault launched a more luxurious car the R16, again this was another success story, the R6 followed, which was a small 16, and then the Renault 5 arrived in 1972 and further expansion of the model ranges continued into the 80's, world expansion was also part of the plan for Renault and a number of tie ups with foreign marques were made, and some were more successful than others, even in Australia they not only produced their own cars, but Peugeot and Ford too, until Ford pulled out of the factory, which in turn caused the closure of the site.

A number of bland cars were produced through late 80's and 90's nothing which was to ignite the passion that was there for previous cars, however, Renault did have a knack of making cars that people wanted, and  in 1984, amongst the worst year of its existence when the company lost 12.4 billion francs, the Espace was launched, the first car in Europe to fit niche section that would become Renaults own, the Renault 5 was coming to an end and the new car the Clio was introduced to the world with striking looks and a brilliant advertising campaign the Clio soon became a big seller, this was then followed by the 19 replacement, the Megane.

in 1996 the company was privatised, and this freed Renault from the shackles of government purse strings, investments in other parts of the world followed and a tie up with Nissan in 1999, which is still in place today, was made, at the same time, the purchase of Dacia, a Romanian car brand was made, and with the assistance of Renault the Dacia brand went from strength to strength and became thee brand for budget conscious buyers, in 2013 Dacia was launched in the UK to great success with 4,000 models sold in the first four months.

New products came on stream fast and furious, Scenic, Laguna, new Megane, clio updates and so on, and with each new models came increased safety, so much so that Renault has now become the brand of safety with its models all achieving the coveted 5 star NCAP safety certificate, sales were good, well in its home country, in the UK in the 2000's Renault was finding it hard to make a profit, and then the decision was made to slice the brands products for UK sales, the Laguna, Espace, Wind and Kangoo models were scraped, this resulted in sales being halved overnight, but they persevered and by the time 2013 came along, the sales had levelled out and new products were coming on stream.

As well as Safety, Renault has become a name known alongside environmentally conscious cars, with a number of the cars they make being zero emissions, the Twizy, Zoe and Fluence have all been launched to great success, and with further models being produced the future for Renault is looking good, the latest launches include the new Clio and the brand new Captur (which is being reviewed separately) are all looking to the future, with modern computer driven centre consoles, with the ability to download apps via bluetooth from your 3G mobile phone.

Continued alliances with Nissan and Daimler, and pushing Dacia forward with new products and cost busting prices, Renault are now one of the biggest automotive companies by volume, and with this they will be a force to reckon with for many decades to come, the French flair is back in their products, the prices are right, now the perceived reliability needs to be worked on, once this has been ironed out, and with the "4" package that comes with all new Renaults sold in the UK (4 years warranty, 4 years servicing and 4 years roadside assistance) this is a good start.

Here is to the next 114 years,