Citroen and Fiat, or the eternal battle for the Polish market. Who won and why? | French.pl

In 1928, André Citroën arrived in Warsaw at the official invitation of the Polish government. An agreement was then signed, as a result of which a car assembly plant would soon be established in the Polish capital. However, the factory was not built, which, among other things, he sought. The assembly plant was established in the early 1930s in Warsaw, at 2/4/6/8 Górnośląska Street, on the corner of Czerniakowska Street. There were also repair rooms and a service center there. At the same time, representatives of the State Engineering Construction and the Ministry of Military Affairs went to Paris and Turin. The purpose of the trip was to obtain a license for military vehicle equipment. Fiat equipment did not inspire confidence, people preferred Citroën and its semi-track tractors Citroën-Kegresse, based on the passenger car.

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Citroen’s distribution network in Poland was very large. In 1930, there were already 15 car showrooms of this brand. This is a lot considering the low financial resources of the community and the frequent problems with the automobile industry. In the spring of 1931, André visited the Polish capital in connection with the opening of a new showroom. Exhibitions of cars of this brand were organized, which were visited by several thousand people a day. It was believed that no other book about the automobile industry had ever aroused such interest before. The visit had another sub-theme. This year, as part of a military agreement with France, another purchase of around 100 units of the Citroën-Kegresse half-track model was made. Citroën probably hoped that this would be a prelude to establishing long-term roots in Poland. At the same time, the presentation of Fiat and Citroen equipment took place in Warsaw, and a special commission gave an opinion on the Citroen brand, justifying, among others: that Fiat cars are not well suited for Polish roads and military needs.

Citroen’s offer included the supply of all kinds of vehicle equipment to the military. After ten years of repayment of the debt, the car factory built at his expense was supposed to belong to the Polish state, and the company offers to pay a fine if it fails to meet the delivery deadline. Furthermore, Citroen agreed to respect all Polish guarantees and did not claim a monopoly on military equipment for itself. On April 24, 1931, Citroën came to Warsaw asking when it would be possible to finance the contract, knowing that Fiat products had been rejected. Two weeks later, repeated tests of the Fiat car were held in Warsaw, which were again unsuccessful.

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A special commission was appointed to choose the winner of the license agreement bid, which focused on negotiations with Ford, Skoda, and Renault and Citroen – mainly due to the military alliance between France and Poland. A little later, Fiat joined this group. Louis Renault, who had already rejected a request for cooperation from the Polish government in 1928, decided not to participate in the bid, leaving the field to Citroen. It was then that decisive decisions had to be made.

Wiesław Górnicki wrote in his book “Three Scandals” that Lieutenant Colonel Kazimierz Meyer, who headed the commission, falsely and unreliably presented Citroën’s proposal at a meeting of the Administrative Council of the State Engineering Plant. This should have led to the rejection of the offer and preparations to conclude another agreement. Officially, Citroen’s proposal turned out to be ineffective in the most important aspect of the financial contribution proposed by the company, which amounted to PLN 200,000. dollars.

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Fiat, on the other hand, announced its willingness to invest 1.2 million dollars. He presented more favorable terms including licensing rights. Costs of parts imported from Turin and sales commissions from “Polski Fiat” were also more profitable. It seems that André Citroën was not ready to make an agreement despite the pressure from the Polish side on the French Foreign Ministry. It is also alleged that he rejected the proposal to sign a contract on the same terms as proposed by Fiat.

On September 21, 1931, the Polish government signed a license agreement with Fiat, and it was for this reason that the Warsaw branch of Citroen reduced its activities (eventually it was closed).
A year later, André Citroën appeared again in Warsaw for a short time, this time due to the death of his sister Jeanne. Business in Poland did not go as he wanted. “The king of the car” – as it is written about him, stayed at the Hotel Europejski. He was welcomed by the most famous people in the country, and in his honor a reception was held at the national Philharmonic hall in Warsaw with the participation of President Ignacy Mościcki. They discussed Citroën’s new offer to the Polish car industry.

On August 2, 1934, an offer signed by André Citroën was presented in Warsaw to the chairman of the Ministerial Commission for the National Motor Vehicle. It was about the construction of a modern factory for passenger cars and trucks.

Citroën agreed to bear the costs of this investment itself. However, the agreement was not signed. The reason was that they were probably afraid of trouble – the French company had serious financial problems at the time. In the same year, the premiere of the new Citroen car – Traction Avant – took place in Paris. It was an unusual model that became a success in the car market in terms of drives – it used front-wheel drive. Although revolutionary, this car incurred high production costs and the company recorded losses. Citroen himself, which was not a secret, was losing a lot of money in the casino and was also very ill. Furthermore, the prevailing opinion is that most of the foreign investment in Poland was represented by the French capital.

Less than a year later, André Citroën died. The Second World War began, and after it ended, Citroens were the main vehicles used by the government administration in Poland. The Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, used a car of this brand for a while. However, he thought it was “very proud” of him. At the same time, Poland was again one of the most backward countries in Europe compared to the automotive industry. The success came at the end of 1970, after the team led by Edward Gierek came to power.

At the beginning of the following year, a decision was made to purchase a license for a modern passenger car and bus in Western countries. Business negotiations with Fiat, Citroën, Renault (passenger car) and Berliet, Fiat, Hino (Japan), Kloeckner-Humblod-Deutz (bus) did not last long.
It was considered necessary to launch mass production of a small passenger car whose production cost would be low and which would be available to as large a group of working people as possible (people’s car). Although license production of the Fiat 125p began in November 1967, the car was too expensive to be used as a basis for the spread of cars. Since 1968, the Central Center for Design and Research of the Automotive Industry has been researching the vehicles of various companies.

Four types of cars were chosen for consideration by the Polish side: Fiat 126, Fiat 127, Renault 122 and Citroën Dyane.

The disadvantage of Renault with a modern engine of 950 cm3 was that the car-producing company offered the Polish side the worst compensation conditions, that is, reducing the total purchase cost by giving the finished car or its components. The French intended to produce only complete cars with a luxurious coupe body. This meant that an additional production line for this version of the car would have to be launched in Poland. Once again, like many years ago, it emerged that Fiat and Citroen cars were involved.

Citroën Dyane 6p, where the last letter would mean “Polish”, was a slightly modified version of the 2CV, intended to be manufactured in Poland. It was a car with an engine capacity of 600 cm3, a front-wheel drive, air-cooled, and a body derived from, for example, a station wagon, and the cost of producing one car was PLN 42,500. PLN (for comparison, Fiat 126p PLN 40,000). Investment costs and the use of foreign currency taken by the Polish side were slightly higher than the Fiat version.

The main drawback of Citroen, however, was more complicated and, at the same time, its outdated design. The justification said, among other things, that “it does not meet the current conditions regarding the protection of the atmosphere against environmental pollution, and the need to deal with it will lead to a reduction in engine power.” Finally, in October 1971, an agreement was concluded with Fiat, which agreed to launch the production of the Fiat 126p car in Poland. In August 1972, by Berliet of France, which announced the start of production of a modern bus.

Author: Jacek Perzyński of Francuskie.pl

Sources

• Wiesław Górnicki, three scandals, Warsaw 1956.
• Mariusz W. Majewski, Development of the automobile industry in Poland in 1919-1930, Studia Historica IX (2010) Folia 78.
• Krzysztof Lesiakowski, For Poland to grow stronger… “The concept of improving the Polish car industry in 1971-1972”, Przegląd Nauk Historicalcznych 2017, Vol.
• Auto World –
• B. Andrzejowski, “Czas” No. 143, May 27, 1937, “Historical” indiscretions and current attacks.
• “Ilustrowana Republika” No. 132, April 16, 1930, Used Cars. A Citroen car does not lose its value.
• “Ilustrowana Republika” No. 115 April 28, 1931, Citroën Exhibition in Warsaw.
• “Głos Poranny” No. 120 May 3, 1931, The Citroën motor show aroused great interest in the capital.
• “The Morning of the 5th” No. 110 April 18, 1932, Arrival of the king of the French car in Warsaw.

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