Heuliez was a French company that worked as a production and design unit for various automakers. It specialized in producing short series for

niche markets A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that it ...

, such as

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

s or station-wagons. The business activity ended on 31 October 2013. The company's plant and buildings have been taken over by the " Fabrique régionale du Bocage", a quasi-company which has the regional government of

Poitou-Charentes Poitou-Charentes (; oc, Peitau-Charantas; Poitevin-Saintongese: ) is a former administrative region on the southwest coast of France. It is part of the new region Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprises four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, D ...

as its majority shareholder.

History

Heuliez was created in 1920 by Adolphe Heuliez, who started by making horse-drawn carts. As early as 1925, he assembled his first car, a

Peugeot 177B Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

. He also created a subsidiary company for the production of buses, which was later sold in 1980 and trades as

Heuliez Bus Heuliez Bus is a French limited company, former part of the Henri Heuliez Group. It was formed in 1980. It is an Iveco Group brand and is specialized in manufacturing buses and coaches. History Heuliez Bus has developed many types of public ...

. Toward the end, however, the main product of Heuliez was the retractable roof made for the Peugeot 206 CC, with 350,000 units being produced. It also produced entire cars, such as the

Opel Tigra The Opel Tigra name has been applied to two different cars engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel, both based on different iterations of the Corsa supermini, the first built in Spain, the second in France. The first Tigra was a sma ...

. Since 1985, Heuliez has produced more than 450,000 cars, with a staff of over 2,000. Poor sales of the Tigra forced Heuliez to reduce its staff by 541 and Opel asked Heuliez to reduce its output from 200 to 50 cars/day until the end of 2006. In October 2007, Heuliez asked for protection from creditors. In July 2008, Argentum Motors committed itself to invest 10 million Euros in the business, with a further 10 million Euros during the ensuing five years, in return for 60% of the company's capital, but the agreement was not followed through. The main production plant is located in Cerizay in the

Deux-Sèvres Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019.

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

''. The president of Heuliez is Paul Quéveau. In 2010, Heuliez went out of the convertible rooftop-making business, and the electric vehicle elements were acquired by the Franco-German group Baelen Gaillard Industrie-ConEnergy-Kohl and were renamed

Mia electric Mia Electric was a French electric car manufacturer in the 2010s. The company, based in Cerizay, France, designed and built electric vehicles made totally in France. The Mia was the company's first all-electric model on the market. The car has ...

which itself ceased business in 2014.

Production

Citroën BX The Citroën BX is a large family car which was produced by the French manufacturer Citroën from 1982 to 1994. In total, 2,315,739 BXs were built during its 12-year history. The hatchback was discontinued in 1993 with the arrival of the Xantia, ...

Station Wagon (1985–1994) *

Citroën Visa The Citroën Visa is a five-door, front-engine, front wheel drive supermini manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1978 to 1988 in gasoline and diesel variants. 1,254,390 examples were ultimately manufactured over a single generation, with a ...

Chrono (1984) *

Mille Pistes (1984) *

Convertible (1984) *

4TC (1986) * Citroën CX Break (1989–1991) *

Citroën XM The Citroën XM is a front-engine, front-drive, five-passenger, five-door hatchback noted for its hydropneumatic suspension. Manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1989 to 2000, with a minor facelift in 1994, XM production reached 333,405 ov ...

Break (1992–2000) *

Citroën Xantia The Citroën Xantia, pronounced "Zan–ti–a" is a large family car ( D) produced by the French automaker Citroën, and designed by Bertone. Presented to the press in December 1992, the car was produced between 1992 and 2002 in Europe, with a f ...

Break (1995–2001) *

Opel Tigra TwinTop The Opel Tigra name has been applied to two different cars engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel, both based on different iterations of the Opel Corsa, Corsa Supermini car, supermini, the first built in Spain, the second in France. ...

(2004–2009) * Peugeot 206 CC (2000–2007) *

Peugeot 604 The Peugeot 604 is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1975 to 1985. 153,252 cars were sold during its 10-year production life. It was made in France and also assembled by Kia in South Korea. The Pininfarina-designed ...

Limousine (1978–1984) *

Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 The Peugeot 205 is a supermini (B-segment) car produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1983 to 1999. It was declared "car of the decade" by ''CAR Magazine'' in 1990. It also won ''What Car?s Car of the Year for 1984. The 205 was introd ...

road cars *

Renault 5 Turbo The Renault 5 Turbo or R5 Turbo is a sport hatchback automobile launched by the French manufacturer Renault at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1980. The car was primarily designed for rallying, but was also sold in a street version. A total o ...

Electric vehicles

Heuliez Friendly Mia Electric was a French electric car manufacturer in the 2010s. The company, based in Cerizay, France, designed and built electric vehicles made totally in France. The Mia was the company's first all-electric model on the market. The car has ...

, becoming Mia electric *Heuliez Pondicherry, neighborhood all-electric urban pick-up prototype

References

{{Authority control Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France Convertible top suppliers Coachbuilders of France Contract vehicle manufacturers Companies based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine

History

Production

Electric vehicles

See also

References