Legends: Louis Renault

Born in 1877 to a wealthy family of Paris merchants, Renault was the last of five children but the first one interested in all things mechanical. Electricity and engines were his passion and, during a time of technological changes, he was on the cutting edge. Interestingly, By the time he turned 20 he had converted his De Dion-Bouton tricycle into a small, four-wheeled vehicle. The “direct drive” followed, the first gearbox that eliminated the transmission chains and cogs that had been used until then. A year later, on Christmas Eve, Renault bet a group of friends he could climb the 13-degree slope of the Rue Lepic (Street) on the way to Montmartre, the highest hill in Paris. He made the climb and filled his first 12 orders that day. Within a few months, Renault had a patent for the direct-drive system. Within a decade, every manufacturer was using it. Renault’s brothers, Marcel and Fernand, established an automotive company, allowing Louis to keep ownership of his patent and paying him a salary with the condition he show results. In the factory, Louis continued to flourish — patenting his first turbocharger, then the first Renault engine. With Fernand and Marcel at the wheel of Renault race cars, they chalked up win after win from Paris to Berlin. Their victory in Bordeaux in 1900 netted 350 orders alone. With each car selling for the equivalent of 10 year’s average salary, the company grew by leaps and bounds. But tragedy struck. Marcel died in a race in 1903. Six years later, Fernand died, leaving Louis to carry on alone at age 32. Renault left the job of selling the family name to professional race-car drivers and then began spreading the word by establishing a broad sales network from Italy to England, Spain to the United States. By 1905 he had taxi orders in the world’s major cities. Renault became the leading French vehicle manufacturer, producing vans, small buses and aircraft. During the First World War, Renault became an industry tycoon, producing munitions, trucks, engines and ambulances. Employment at Societe des Automobiles Renault grew to 22,000 in 1918 from 4,400 in 1914. After difficult work strikes in 1936 and a collapse in French car production, Renault became lonesome, suspicious and ill. When France surrendered to Germany in 1940 during the Second World War, he agreed to work for the German army. Renault was arrested in September of 1944 after the Germans left Paris and died a month later in prison. The Renault name would go on, saved by the post-war government and nationalization.