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CHEVROLET

•  Chevrolet, nicknamed "Chevy", is an American automobile manufacturer owned by the General Motors (GM) group since May 1918. With 4.95 million vehicles sold worldwide in 20121, Chevrolet occupied fourth place in the world among automobile brands behind Volkswagen, Ford and the Japanese Toyota. It is withdrawing from the European market at the end of 2015 in favor of Opel, a former division of the General Motors group bought in 2017 by PSA2.

• The beginnings of Chevrolet

• The creation of Chevrolet

• The three Chevrolet brothers (Arthur and Gaston on the right, and Louis at the wheel) in 1915.

• The founder of the brand, Louis Chevrolet, was a champion cyclist and automobile racing driver, born on December 25, 1878 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

• He was the foreman of Raoul Perpère, founder of the Perpère-Darracq cars which later became Talbot. Raoul Perpère decided to finance and install Louis Chevrolet in Canada in order to produce and distribute Perpère-Darracq cars on the American continent. Decision was made to call this production "Chevrolet" thereafter. The other founder, William C. Durant, had founded General Motors a few years earlier and bought Raoul Perpère's stake.

• Louis Chevrolet had achieved great success as a racing driver in the United States. His exploits made him famous, which allowed him to obtain the necessary funds to create his own brand of cars. Before creating his brand, Louis Chevrolet, trained as a foreman at the manufacturer Raoul Perpère (Perpère-Darracq cars) in the southwest of France (Bayonne), had been a mechanic and driver for Fiat and Buick in New York. However, it was an event at the head of General Motors which was at the origin of the creation. GM chairman and founder William Crapo Durant was ousted from his seat following financial problems but remained a member of the board of directors. As he knew Louis Chevrolet, having hired him for his Buick division, William C. Durant contacted him to help him create a touring car, and especially with the aim of using his name which was already renowned in the United States. United. William C. Durant, a brilliant businessman, wanted revenge against General Motors.

• William C. Durant and Louis Chevrolet set up shop in Detroit, Michigan, and Chevrolet's role was to build a prototype for a passenger car that would bear their names. Louis Chevrolet received help from French engineer Étienne Planche, American engineer John Trumbull and coachbuilder Franck Monroe. They first designed two engines, a four-cylinder engine and a six-cylinder engine. William C. Durant then chose the six-cylinder to equip his new cars.

• On May 30, 1911, it was announced that a Durant-Chevrolet factory would be created. Some time later, in November 1911, its name changed to Chevrolet Motor Company of Michigan, at which time the first four prototypes were presented to the public. The 1911 Chevrolet Classic Six was the first Chevrolet vehicle to be sold. It cost $2,150, significantly more than the $850 Ford T.

• Louis Chevrolet leaves Chevrolet

• William C. Durant controlled the Chevrolet Company. He and Louis Chevrolet often disagreed on several points. For example, Louis Chevrolet took a trip to France in 1913, and William C. Durant took the opportunity to move the factory from Detroit to Flint, Michigan. The purpose of this move was to merge Chevrolet with the Little Company (which William C. Durant had also created), which Louis Chevrolet hated. The merger was made and the company became Little-Chevrolet. There were also disputes over the design of the new models. It was also said that William C. Durant could not stand Louis Chevrolet's sloppy outfit and the fact that he smoked cigarettes, while people of his class were expected to smoke cigars. Upon his return from France in December 1913, Louis Chevrolet left the company he had helped found two years earlier, and since the contract that had been signed at the creation of the company provided that if Louis Chevrolet left, he was to leave Durant his name and his cars, Louis Chevrolet left empty-handed, which deprived him of an incredible fortune a few years later.

• The takeover/merger with General Motors, thanks to the success of the 490

• With Louis Chevrolet gone, William C. Durant merged all his firms with Little-Chevrolet and increased its capital by three million dollars. In 1915, the Chevrolet 490 (for its price, 490 dollars) competed with the Ford T and multiplied its sales ninefold in two years, going from 13,500 to 111,500 between 1915 and 1917. Having become a giant of the American automobile, Chevrolet finances the gigantic stock raid on General Motors. In April 1916, the Flint (Michigan) factory was expanded for a million dollars. Production capacity increases to 200 cars per day3. The demolition of the old Buick factory and the integration of the engine manufacturer Mason made it possible to modernize the group.

CHEVROLET

• In 1917, William C. Durant exchanged his Chevrolet shares for General Motors shares and in May 1918, Chevrolet became a division of GM, retaining great autonomy. The economic crisis of 1920 undermined GM stock, William C. Durant was permanently ousted from the presidency.

• Abandonment of the European market

• In December 2013, General Motors announced the withdrawal of Chevrolet from the European market at the end of 2015 (with the exception of the Camaro and Corvette which will be distributed by the Cadillac network)2. The warranty for recent vehicles will be provided by Opel dealers and the distribution of spare parts ensured for at least ten years. Following this decision, the National Council of Automotive Professions filed a lawsuit against General Motors for non-compliance with the clauses of a contract before the Paris Commercial Court. The court handed down its decision in March 2015 and ordered General Motors to pay eight million euros to the 12 plaintiffs. General Motors appealed.

• The Chevrolet logo

• The first Chevrolet logo (1911).

• Since the brand has been established for a long time, the Chevrolet logo is recognized by everyone in North America. The Chevrolet logo, known as the "bowtie", appeared in 1913 on the brand's vehicles. There are several theories as to its origin5.

• The Chevrolet logo introduced in 1913.

• The most popular theory is that William C. Durant visited a hotel in Paris in 1908 and saw a shape similar to the current logo on wallpaper. He then allegedly tore up part of the wallpaper and took it with him to the United States, where he told friends that it would make a nice plaque to put on a car brand name.

• Another version, that of William C. Durant's daughter, says that Durant often drew plates for his cars on scraps of paper during dinner. It would be between the soup and the fried chicken that he would have designed the Chevrolet logo.

• The Chevrolet logo until 2009.

• Another version, this time from the wife of William C. Durant, says that it was while they were on vacation in Virginia that Durant saw the logo in a newspaper, and that he told his wife that it would make a nice emblem for Chevrolet cars. However, his wife did not remember how the logo was used in the newspaper.

• Another version, also very likely, would be that the logo is in fact a sort of Swiss cross since one of the founders (Louis Chevrolet) is of Swiss origin.

• Finally, a company that sold coal briquettes made an advertisement in 1911 where its logo looked suspiciously like Chevrolet's, but with the word Coalettes written in the bow tie. It is possible that William C. Durant copied this logo.

• Chevrolet vehicles

• The different brands and models

• In 2005, Chevrolet was the best-selling vehicle brand in the United States and Canada. Chevrolet vehicles are available in most regions of the world and since 2005, with the acquisition of Daewoo by General Motors a few years earlier, Chevrolet has been present in Europe, since GM Daewoo vehicles are now sold there under the Chevrolet brand. Models designed or produced by GM Daewoo are also sold in North America under the Chevrolet brand (currently the Chevrolet Spark and Cruze, or the Chevrolet Optra and Epica in Canada in the past).

• Outside of North America, Chevrolet also sells vehicles produced by GM subsidiaries or commercial partners, such as Opel, Holden, Subaru, Avto-Vaz (Lada), Daewoo, etc.

• In 1989 in the United States, General Motors decided to compete with small Asian vehicles by rebadging Suzuki, Isuzu and Opel models under the Geo and Asüna brands. The Geo appeared in Canada in 1992. The Asüna was sold at Pontiac dealerships (which also sold Buick and GMC) while the Geo was sold at Chevrolet dealerships (which also sold Oldsmobile). The most popular model was the Geo Metro, effectively a Suzuki Swift, and the Geo Tracker, a Suzuki Sidekick (also called Escudo in Japan and Vitara in Europe). The brand did not achieve the success hoped for and, in 1997, it was the end for Geo. Some Geo vehicles became Chevrolets (like the Chevrolet Metro and the Chevrolet Tracker) but today they no longer exist. Today, the Suzuki Swift+ is a Chevrolet Aveo (named Kalos in Europe) rebadged as Suzuki.

• The American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) decided to put an end, on December 5, 2013, to competition between its brands on the European market, by withdrawing Chevrolet to leave the field open to its German subsidiary Opel, from the beginning of 2016 .

• The most popular models

• Chevrolet sold several models of vehicles, but some of them stuck in people's imaginations more than others. The first truly popular model was the Chevrolet 490. The years passed and people could afford cars: the 1950s saw the appearance of the Bel-Air, the Impala, while the Malibu (Chevelle) appeared in the 1960s. To these models are added the Corvair, Chevelle, Nova. The Chevrolet Cavalier is better known for its sales figures than for the vehicle itself (which was nothing particularly remarkable), but everyone in North America knows it.

• There are obviously slightly more “muscular” vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Camaro, a direct competitor to the Ford Mustang, and the Chevrolet Corvette, the North American racing car.

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