Berliet was Lyon’s leading manufacturer; he built his first car in 1895 in a workshop in the Croix-Rousse district.

It acquired the Audibert and Lavirotte factory in Montplaisir in 1901, but it was the sale of a licence to the American Locomotive Company in 1905 that enabled it to expand its business and produce its first lorry in 1906 (it then adopted the American locomotive with the triangular buffer as its emblem).

Although car production continued until 1939, it was the manufacture of commercial vehicles that took precedence, just as it did for the other major Lyon-based brands, Rochet-Schneider and Luc Court.

In 1978, Berliet merged with Saviem (Renault’s ‘industrial vehicles’ division) under the name Renault Véhicules Industriels (R.V.I.), now known as Renault Trucks.

A massive company with large factories. Aware of a lack of apprenticeships in the industry, Marius Berliet founded a small apprenticeship school in 1906, which became the Berliet Apprenticeship Centre, or Ecole des Apprentis, in 1909.

He added a driving school, open to all car owners, whether they owned a Berliet or not. Over the course of twelve two-hour lessons, participants received training enabling them to identify engine faults or malfunctions.

He also set up, at a time when this was not a major concern in France, schools for sales staff, secretaries, mechanics and professional welders. Other companies, such as Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, would eventually go on to develop entire neighbourhoods – small industrial communities, sometimes complete with crèches – which provided a livelihood for a large proportion of a town’s population. 

-  Bodywork: double Phaeton (two rows of seats but no front doors) C2 type.
-  Engine: 4-cylinder, split into two blocks (10 CV) – 14/15 CV – 2,412 cm³ / 21 CH at 1,300 rpm.
-  Dashboard: features only an oil gauge.
-  Weight: 1,500 kg