Hotchkiss – a History

Founded by an American arms manufacturer in France at the behest of Napoleon III at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries the Hotchkiss company began machining parts for the thriving French motor industry. This led to making entire automobiles from 1903 onward, with the golden age for Hotchkiss being from 1930 to 1939. Post-WWII the company, like many motor manufacturers in austere post-war France, fell on hard times, became involved with Jean-Albert Grégoire and his impossible-to-make Hotchkiss-Grégoire car, before finally giving up car manufacture by 1955. Jeeps and Ferguson tractors made under licenses funded progress for a while but the end was nigh and in 1956 the Brandt company (also an arms manufacturer) took over Hotchkiss, which then merged with Thomson-Houston in 1966, the Hotchkiss name finally disappearing in 1976.