333:, which had concluded the 1930s as the producer of large stylish expensive cars, was reinvented as a volume maker of small cars with aluminium bodies. Aluminium producers had geared up to support aircraft makers who, following the outbreak of peace, were no longer supported by an insatiable demand for fighter planes. In the late 1940s aluminium was therefore available and relatively inexpensive, while the sheet steel which most automakers needed for their car bodies was in desperately short supply. Nevertheless, the Panhard Dyna was not a simple model to produce, nor indeed to maintain, and Panhard lacked the strong dealership and service network across the country that supported the big four auto-makers. In 1949, Panhard produced 4,834 passenger cars, which was no mean achievement under the circumstances, but still derisory when set against the 63,920 cars produced that year by
387:, but for small manufacturers there was nothing optional about the Pons Plan, because government controlled supplies of the raw materials – above all the steel – needed to produce cars. In the end Mathis was forced to abandon his plans to return to auto-making, and the productive assets of his Strasbourg plant were sold to Citroën in 1953. Three years later, Émile Mathis himself died as the result of an accident which involved his falling out of a hotel window in
363:
longer savagely restricted according to government policy, but other policies from the late 1940s that targeted larger cars, notably a punitive annual car tax for any passenger cars with engines larger than approximately 2 litres (coincidentally slightly above the standard engine size for the big Citroëns) endured.
348:
Smaller automakers found the Pons Plan neither as voluntary nor as temporary as some may have anticipated. The luxury auto-makers whose cars were to be targeted at export markets found few buyers in those neighbouring countries where the economy had, as in France, been devastated by war, and even the
353:
auto market was far too small to sustain the luxury brands of France, Britain, Italy and, increasingly as the 1940s rolled into the 1950s, West
Germany. North America had plenty of customers willing and able to spend money on new cars, but it also had powerful domestic auto producers, and in volume
382:
factory which had been badly damaged by bombs. Ironically, bombing had been rendered the more damaging because
Matthis had handed over the plans of the factory to the Americans in order that they might more effectively destroy what was, during the war, a German manufacturer of military motors and
362:
made a serious return, imported
British producers of luxury and sporting cars tended to outperform other European auto-makers in North America. As the Pons Plan receded into history during the 1950s, any surviving French luxury automakers might have been relieved that their steel supplies were no
91:
who was a firm believer in the benefits of government economic planning. The Pons Plan was for a government devised and directed rationalisation of the French vehicle industry. The plan identified in France 22 manufacturers of passenger cars and 28 manufacturers of trucks. This was considered too
403:
and exhibited a stylish 14 CV cabriolet. This came a year after the company had presented, the previous year, an elegant 1450cc (8CV) car called the Type 164R. But without government sanctioned steel supplies there was no possibility that the cars could enter production.
407:
Other second tier volume auto-makers that survived the war by producing military supplies, only to find that after the outbreak of peace their return to auto-making was thwarted or stifled by exclusion from the "preferred producers list" of the Pons Plan included
453:
During the 1950s the economic balance would tilt back towards steel car bodies and components, forcing
Panhard to increase the proportion of steel in their cars, and so lose many of the benefits of the light-weight construction on which their 1948
228:
Although the larger auto-makers did not entirely follow its strictures, by the time Paul-Marie Pons left his job in
November 1946, the vehicle market had been carved up in a way that clearly retained features of the Pons Plan:
155:. There were two further groupings of the smaller formerly independently vehicle manufacturers, being the U.F.A (Union Française Automobile) and the G.F.A (Générale Française de l'Automobile), being headed up respectively by
398:
seem nevertheless to have shared his view that the Pons Plan could be ignored or circumvented once the immediate pressures of post war political interventionism had subsided. Licorne, like Mathis, took a stand at the 1948
22:(24 June 1904 – 24 October 1966) was a French naval engineer who became a senior civil servant. He is remembered for the Pons Plan which restructured the French automotive industry in the second half of the 1940s.
197:, accused of collaboration, had lost control of his company and died under suspicious circumstances in October 1944, and his business came under the control of well-connected
217:, was also able to escape the model planning of the civil servant. That left Panhard to produce the A.F.G. (Aluminium Français Grégoire) which was later rebranded as the
375:
186:, which would produce two and four door versions of the A.F.G. (Aluminium Français Grégoire), a radical front-wheel drive aluminium based car designed by
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many. The plan, applied in a way that some viewed as authoritarian and arbitrary, defined complementary roles for seven of the larger manufacturers:
608:
598:
166:
In the French passenger car market, production was divided into three principal sectors according to car size. Citroën, with their existing
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who ignored the Pons Plan. Lefauchex went ahead with a small car that had been well advanced during the war, which emerged in 1948 as the
545:
441:
593:
198:
65:
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Other major losers from the Pons Plan, barely mentioned in the plan itself, were France's second tier volume automakers.
603:
311:
The winners were clearly the big four French automakers that dominated the French auto-market in the 1950s and 1960s:
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on the southern fringes of Paris). After this he pursued a successful career in engineering and management.
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munitions. By 1948, Mathis was exhibiting a modern six cylinder sedan/saloon called the Type 666 at the
588:
583:
64:. Robert Lacoste had himself been a senior civil servant before the war and had been a member of the
68:
during the war, after which he re-emerged as a
Socialist Deputy and a leading national politician.
60:
Pons was appointed to the
Ministry of Industrial Production under the direction of the minister,
35:
123:
Citroën and
Renault were both considered powerful and large enough to operate autonomously, but
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built 180,251 base-trim two door sedans alone in (model year) 1949, so "volume" was relative.
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Paul-Marie Pons, "Un plan quinquennal de l'industrie automobile française", in
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570:, no. 10 (May 1945), pp. 52–64, and no 11 (June 1945), pp. 54–68.
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522:. Vol. 12. Paris: Histoire & collections. 1999. p. 50.
507:. Vol. 12. Paris: Histoire & collections. 1999. p. 52.
472:. Vol. 12. Paris: Histoire & collections. 1999. p. 54.
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had been obliged to quit France during the war in response to the
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In 1927 he married Michèlle Duchez; the marriage was childless.
221:. Citroën used the duration of the plan to further develop the
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would produce mid-sized cars, leaving the small car market for
378:, but he returned in 1946 and invested heavily to restore his
225:
that had been started in the 1930s. It was launched in 1948.
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model, would occupy the upper end of the volume car market.
83:
The Pons Plan was conceived in the broader context of the
193:
Matters did not work out quite as intended by the Plan.
163:, and destined to produce just two models between them.
209:. That left Peugeot with the middle-sized cars, while
561:
394:Less combative than Émile Mathis, the directors of
553:L'Industrie automobile française: un cas original?
139:for the production of commercial vehicles. In the
520:Toutes les Voitures Françaises 1949 (Salon 1948)
505:Toutes les Voitures Françaises 1949 (Salon 1948)
470:Toutes les Voitures Françaises 1949 (Salon 1948)
8:
354:terms during the early years following the
147:was required to form an association with
425:
38:, Pons was educated at the prestigious
16:French naval engineer and civil servant
85:modernisation and reconstruction Plan
7:
434:Hotchkiss 1935-1955. L'âge classique
458:and its successors were predicated.
297:Required to concentrate on exports
484:"1946-57 Chevy Production Figures"
436:, Ă©ditions E.T.A.I.,1998, p. 104.
300:Delahaye-Delage, Hotchkiss, Talbot
14:
538:Grégoire, une aventure Hotchkiss
609:People from Meurthe-et-Moselle
127:were required to link up with
1:
599:20th-century French engineers
557:Histoire, économie et société
87:of the influential economist
376:German occupation of France
625:
372:racist government policies
559:(1999), vol. 18, no. 2:
540:(Massin Ă©diteur, 1994),
374:implemented during the
568:Les Cahiers politiques
289:Citroën Traction 15 CV
277:Citroën Traction 11 CV
594:French civil servants
536:Marc-Antoine Colin,
432:Marc-Antoine Colin,
188:Jean-Albert Grégoire
563:, pp. 419–433.
551:Jean-Louis Loubet,
40:École Polytechnique
604:People from Longwy
337:and the 49,424 by
307:Winners and losers
36:Meurthe et Moselle
358:, at least until
341:. By comparison,
215:a foreign company
203:Pierre Lefaucheux
66:French Resistance
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401:Paris Motor Show
396:Corre La Licorne
385:Paris Motor Show
356:Second World War
153:Rochet-Schneider
58:Second World War
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518:"Automobilia".
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503:"Automobilia".
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468:"Automobilia".
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20:Paul-Marie Pons
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233:Passenger cars
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219:Panhard Dyna X
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62:Robert Lacoste
34:, département
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487:. Retrieved
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368:Émile Mathis
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589:1966 deaths
584:1904 births
273:10 – 12 CV
261:Peugeot 203
249:Renault 4CV
223:Citroën 2CV
213:, owned by
207:Renault 4CV
89:Jean Monnet
71:He died in
578:Categories
489:2014-09-29
380:Strasbourg
285:>15 CV
199:Resistance
56:After the
46:, (now at
42:, then at
410:Rosengart
343:Chevrolet
257:6 – 8 CV
129:Hotchkiss
48:Palaiseau
201:veteran
168:Traction
143:region,
102:Ford SAF
30:Born in
420:Sources
414:Salmson
339:Citroën
335:Renault
331:Panhard
321:Peugeot
317:Renault
313:Citroën
265:Simca 8
180:Panhard
176:Peugeot
172:Renault
157:Panhard
149:Isobloc
145:Berliet
125:Peugeot
114:Renault
110:Peugeot
106:Panhard
98:Citroën
94:Berliet
555:, in:
544:
456:Dyna X
440:
389:Geneva
137:Saurer
32:Longwy
351:Swiss
325:Simca
211:Simca
184:Simca
161:Simca
133:Latil
118:Simca
73:Paris
44:Paris
542:ISBN
438:ISBN
412:and
323:and
182:and
174:and
159:and
151:and
141:Lyon
135:and
116:and
26:Life
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