Stellantis Stellantis N.V. is a multinational automotive manufacturing corporation formed in 2021 on the basis of a 50–50 cross-border merger between the Italian-American conglomerate Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group. The comp ...

Poissy Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French. Poissy is one of ...

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Peugeot 207, the

Peugeot 207 SW The Peugeot 207 is a supermini car ( B) that was designed and produced by the French automaker Peugeot from 2006 to 2014. It was presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2006, and entered production in April 2006, as the successor to the Peugeot 2 ...

and the

Citroën DS3 The DS 3 (formerly known as Citroën DS3 and DS 3 Crossback) is a luxury supermini initially produced by the French automobile manufacturer Citroën and officially launched in January 2010. This was the first and entry-level model from the D ...

. Together with the PSA Research Centres at Carrières-sous-Poissy and at Vélizy, it is one of three major establishments that PSA runs in

the department ''The Department'' is a satirical comedy on BBC Radio 4 about a secret organisation with the power to influence every aspect of your life. Chris Addison, John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman star as Research Team 32, an eccentric three-man think-tan ...

. The Poissy plant was commissioned by

Ford France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1937 and opened in 1940 a few weeks before the German invasion. When, in 1954, Ford sold their business to

Simca Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...

, the Poissy plant was naturally included in the deal, and less than ten years later Simca closed their existing plant at Nanterre, leaving Poissy as their only significant auto-production facility. Ownership passed again in 1963, this time to

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

who in that year acquired a controlling interest in Simca. Then in 1978

Peugeot 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 the ...

acquired Chrysler's European business. Former Simca models were rebadged as

Talbot Talbot was an automobile marque introduced in 1902 by English-French company Clément-Talbot. The founders, Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Adolphe Clément-Bayard, reduced their financial interests in their Clément-Talbot ...

s and continued to be produced at the Poissy plant during the early 1980s. However, the mid-range hatchback that had been designed to sustain the Talbot brand was rebadged ahead of its 1985 launch as the Peugeot 309. That is the name under which it was sold, and since that time the plant has concentrated on the production of small Citroën and Peugeot badged models. In October 2010 the plant had 6,535 registered employees.

History

The construction of the Poissy plant was the project of

Maurice Dollfus Maurice Dollfus was appointed to head up Ford of France in 1930. Four years later he negotiated an agreement with Mathis which led to the creation of the Matford joint project in 1934 in order to enable Ford to grow its French business at a time ...

, Ford's dynamic boss in France. In 1932 governments had responded to economic contraction by raising tariff barriers and Ford had responded to the need to source vehicles locally by entering into an agreement, in 1934, with the

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

-based Mathis company to produce Ford-designed cars, which would be branded as Matfords, in an extended Strasbourg plant. Ford brought cash to the deal and a fractious partnership ensued, Mathis having found themselves obliged to abandon production of their own cars in October 1934. For Dollfus the Poissy plant, commissioned in 1938, would provide a route away from the by now bitterly litigious Matford relationship. Construction began on a large 240,000 m2 site bordering the

River Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

in Poissy at the start of November 1938 and progressed remarkably rapidly, with the plant formally completed on 1 May 1940. Located a short distance downstream from Paris along the (here fully navigable) River Seine, Poissy was near to Asnières, which was home to Chausson, at that time a car body producer and principal supplier to

Ford France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The site was also adjacent to the main railway line connecting Paris with

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

.

The principal product to be produced at Poissy was to be closely based on the Matford “Alsace” V8, itself a version of the existing US 3622 cc

Ford Model 48 The Model 48 was an update on Ford's V8-powered Model 40A, the company's main product. Introduced in 1935, the Model 48 was given a cosmetic refresh annually, begetting the 1937 Ford before being thoroughly redesigned for 1941. The 1935 Ford's c ...

but with a restyled rear. The overall silhouette of the car closely resembled that of the Ford Pilot which was produced for a few years by Ford of Britain from 1947. The other car to be built at Poissy was the Matford Alsace V8 13CV, which had a smaller 2158 cc engine. It looked virtually identical to the larger engined car, though was actually slightly shorter. These cars had started life in 1935 as products of the Matford joint venture, but the cars produced at Ford's new Poissy plant would presumably have been badged as Fords. The plant became operational in the late Spring of 1940 and there was therefore very little time in which to produce anything before the débacle of May 1940. On 14 June 1940 Poissy was occupied by the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

: under conditions of occupation the plant concentrated on light trucks. As the war dragged on there was a move, in 1943, to crate up Ford's newly completed

Poissy Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French. Poissy is one of ...

plant for shipment to the company's Cologne location, but this was blocked, apparently due to the intervention of a recently resigned but still influential former Vichy government minister called François Lehideux. Seven years later, in 1950, Lehideux replaced

Maurice Dollfus Maurice Dollfus was appointed to head up Ford of France in 1930. Four years later he negotiated an agreement with Mathis which led to the creation of the Matford joint project in 1934 in order to enable Ford to grow its French business at a time ...

at the top of Ford's French operation. Poissy built Ford Truck brightened and cropped to highlight the Ford truck

Poissy was liberated by the Americans on 26 August 1944 after several days of bombardment and civilian casualties, notably on 18 August. Ford's boss,

Maurice Dollfus Maurice Dollfus was appointed to head up Ford of France in 1930. Four years later he negotiated an agreement with Mathis which led to the creation of the Matford joint project in 1934 in order to enable Ford to grow its French business at a time ...

was promptly arrested on suspicion of collaboration and transferred to

Drancy Drancy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris in the Seine-Saint-Denis department in northern France. It is located 10.8 km (6.7 mi) from the center of Paris. History Toponymy The name Drancy comes from Medieval Lati ...

. However, his release came quite quickly and the plant switched to supporting the allied war effort. Initially the government mandated Poissy to produce the light trucks that it had been produced before the war, and in 1946 production commenced of the Ford F698W 5 ton truck known as the “Poissy”. Also in 1946, Poissy reverted to producing the smaller engined 2,225 cc V-8 engined Matford based model, albeit with improved suspension and brakes. The car was known in France as the Ford 13CV, although subsequently it is also called more formally the Ford F-472 and, after the first 300 had been produced, the Ford F-472A. The 4,270 cars produced in 1947 were well short of Ford's ambitions for the new plant ten years earlier, but with basic materials in short supply and customers short of money, in the late 1940s none of the French auto-makers experienced a rapid return to pre-war volumes. In much of industry, including the auto-industry, the immediate post-war years were characterised by industrial unrest, and Ford's Poissy plant was badly affected. Nevertheless, in October 1948 the North American designed Ford Vedette, still powered by the company's familiar V8 2158 cc engine, made its first appearance at a Paris Motor Show: this quickly became Poissy's principal model and during the early 1950s it certainly sold better than the aged Ford F-472A had. Nevertheless, François Lehideux who took over from

Maurice Dollfus Maurice Dollfus was appointed to head up Ford of France in 1930. Four years later he negotiated an agreement with Mathis which led to the creation of the Matford joint project in 1934 in order to enable Ford to grow its French business at a time ...

in January 1950 was known to be dissatisfied with aspects of the new car. Sales volumes were disappointing, and although the engine was produced in-house and final assembly took place at the Poissy plant, other components and sub-assemblies were bought in which was believed to make production vulnerable to supplier problems. Scope for improvement was limited by shortage of investment cash and the limited market for cars with engines above 2 litres in size in a country where the tax regime heavily penalised larger engines. Nevertheless, a new V8 model for Ford of France was pencilled in for 1954. In the late 1940s politics in Europe remained highly polarised and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

will have been aware of the continuing popularity of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

, routinely winning 25% of the votes in national elections till the mid-1950s, buoyed both by the delicate state of the French economy and by the prominent role played by communists in the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

. The strikes that afflicted Ford's Poissy plant, and the poor industrial relations tradition of

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

’s plant at nearby

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...

will have done nothing to reassure Ford about the future direction of the French economy, and it became known that Ford were looking to sell their French manufacturing business, of which the Poissy plant was the principal fixed asset.

Henri Pigozzi Henri Théodore Pigozzi (born Enrico Teodoro Pigozzi; 26 June 1898, in Turin – 18 November 1964, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a car merchant and industrialist who is best known for having founded Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie A ...

, the

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

born boss of

Simca Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...

must have taken a more positive view of the outlook for the French auto-industry, and in 1954 Ford sold their French manufacturing business to

Simca Simca (; Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company) was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat S.p.A. and directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by Italian Henri Pigozzi. Simca was affiliated with Fiat and, after Simca bough ...

along with rights to the new model that it was about to launch. Poissy's new model would be sold with a wide range of names, and in many export markets it would be badged as a Ford during its first few years, but in retrospect it is remembered as the

Simca Vedette The Simca Vedette is a large car, manufactured from 1954 to 1961 by French automaker Simca, at their factory in Poissy, France. The Vedette competed in France's large car market at a time when the economy was finally returning to growth, and en ...

. In France it was sold with Simca badging right from the start. The Simca acquisition triggered a major expansion at the Poissy site. During 1955 new factory buildings were constructed so that by the end of the year, finally, more than half of the site had been built on. Simca Versailles aka Simca Vedette Versailles 2351cc 1956

Simca Versailles aka Simca Vedette Versailles 2351cc 1956

During the early 1950s the economy finally started to grow again and the Simca Vedette made a strong start, with 42,439 produced in 1955 and 44,836 in 1956. These figures probably fell well short of the expectations when the site was acquired in 1937, but it was still a fourteenfold increase over the 3,023 cars produced in 1947. Unfortunately the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression ( ar, العدوان الثلاثي, Al-ʿUdwān aṯ-Ṯulāṯiyy) in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel,Also known as the Suez War or 1956 Wa ...

struck at the end of 1956, and the resulting fuel shortages placed the emphasis back on very small cars. Sales of the V8 Simcas recovered a little by the end of the decade, but production volumes of never again approached those of 1956. Simca responded rapidly by adding to their range the

Simca Ariane The Simca Ariane is a large saloon car launched in April 1957 by the French automaker Simca and manufactured in the company's factory at Poissy until 1963. Origins The plant at Poissy had been built by Ford France between 1937 and 1940, but aft ...

which was a big car with a small engine, also produced in Poissy, which during the ensuing six years clocked up over 160,000 sales. However, by now the large car market in France was increasingly dominated by the Citroën DS which was in a lower car tax bracket than the V8 Simcas and had, after slow start, caught the spirit of the new age. Simca Mille ca 1965 Schaffen-Diest 2012

By 1961 it was not lack of customer demand that was squeezing Vedette production, but Simca's own preparations for a return to small car production. Poissy's large site had always been underutilised, and the Simca 1000 was intended to make far better use of Poissy's potential capacity than either Ford or Simca had hitherto achieved. With more than 100,000 Simca 1000s produced every year from 1962 to 1973, Simca succeeded in this. Nevertheless, there would still be capacity to spare at Poissy, and in 1961 Simca sold the plant at Nanterre which they had used since 1934. After this Poissy was Simca's only large scale production facility in France. As part of the deal by which the Ford business had been sold to Simca in 1954, Ford had acquired a 15% stake in Simca. However, the Ford shares were sold to

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

in 1958. The Chrysler stake in Simca was increased and became a controlling one in 1963. Between 1963 and 1978 Poissy was owned by Chrysler, and Chrysler's Pentastar emblem started to appear on the cars produced there, replacing Simca's "dove" emblem. The Simca name would nonetheless remain on French market cars, such as the

Simca 1307 The Simca 1307 is a large family car produced by Chrysler Europe and subsequently PSA Peugeot Citröen from 1975 to 1986. Codenamed 'C6' in development, the car was styled in the United Kingdom by Roy Axe and his team at Whitley, and the car wa ...

launched in 1975, for several more years, even after exported cars came only with Chrysler badges. Peugeot 309 in Aardenburg

Late in the 1970s Chrysler withdrew from Europe in response to financial pressures on the parent company, and on 10 August 1978 the entire business was sold to PSA Peugeot Citroën. Poissy continued for the time being to produce the cars designed as Simcas, but these were now rebadged as Talbots. The Simca brand disappeared in 1980, although Peugeot continues to own the name. It appeared at the time that Peugeot intended to produce three ranges, Peugeot, Citroën and Talbot, in parallel, maximising commonality for the components that few customers studied while maximising the differences in terms of body design and interior fittings. However, the reintroduced Talbot brand had not, in its 1980s incarnation, had time to generate huge amounts of brand loyalty, and the next new model from Poissy, scheduled to replace the Talbot Horizon, was first postponed and then turned up in 1985 badged as the Peugeot 309 - with Poissy producing left-hand drive models and the former

Rootes Group The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dea ...

factory at

Ryton Ryton may refer to: Places in England * Ryton, Gloucestershire, a location *Ryton, North Yorkshire *Ryton, Shropshire *Ryton, Tyne and Wear *Ryton, Warwickshire (in Bulkington) *Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire *Great Ryton, Shropshire People ...

near

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

producing the right-hand drive versions. This followed Peugeot's decision to discontinue the Talbot brand on passenger cars, although it survived until 1994 on commercial vehicles. 1986 saw Poissy produce its last Talbot-badged car, and the plant's next significant new model was

Peugeot 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 the ...

’s mainstream

small family car The C-segment is the 3rd category of the European segments for passenger cars and is described as "medium cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "small family car" size class, and the compact car category in the United States. In 2011, the C- ...

, the Peugeot 306, which went into production there at the end of 1992 in left-hand drive form, with Ryton once again producing the right-hand drive versions. Between 1992 and 2002 the Peugeot 306 was Poissy’s top product, and the plant manufactured 1,685,470 of them. From 2002 the emphasis switched to the company’s "Platform 1" small cars, the Peugeot 206 and

207 Year 207 ( CCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Severus (or, less frequently, year 960 '' Ab urbe con ...

along with their Citroën counterparts such as the

Citroën C3 The Citroën C3 is a supermini car (B-segment) produced by Citroën since April 2002. It replaced the Citroën Saxo in the model line up, and is currently in its third generation. The third generation model made its appearance in June 2016, and ...

. The plant has also become a major supplier of parts and sub-assemblies to other PSA group plants, and has grown to a point where it has an annual production capacity of 400,000 cars. The 206 was also produced at Ryton until Peugeot closed the plant down in December 2006, switching production to

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

before it was finally discontinued in 2010.

Current production

DS 3 The DS 3 (formerly known as Citroën DS3 and DS 3 Crossback) is a luxury supermini initially produced by the French automobile manufacturer Citroën and officially launched in January 2010. This was the first and entry-level model from the DS ...

(2018-present)

Opel Mokka The Opel Mokka is a subcompact crossover SUV that has been produced by German automaker Opel since 2012. Sales began with the model year of 2013, at the end of 2012. The first generation was developed by GM Korea as the U200 Chevrolet Trax. Betw ...

(2020-present)

Sources and further reading

* Nicolas Hatzfeld, Poissy, une légende automobile, E.T.A.I., 2002, (), 222 p. {{DEFAULTSORT:Psa Poissy Plant Motor vehicle assembly plants in France Poissy Buildings and structures in Yvelines

Poissy Poissy () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Pisciacais'' in French. Poissy is one of ...

1940 establishments in France