Citroen Type A

Citroën Type A at a glance

From shells to cars

André Citroën was 35 when he founded the Société des engrenages Citroën in 1913 to make double-chevron gears under a patent he had bought, according to French Wikipedia. During the First World War the business produced ammunition. From 1917 he had a light car of medium range developed under the engineer Jules Salomon, so that the factory would have work once the war ended.

The result was presented at a press event in Citroën's showroom on the Champs-Élysées and went into production in June 1919. French Wikipedia notes that the first order was delivered a month after it was signed. Production took place at the Quai de Javel in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, where Citroën applied assembly-line methods inspired by Taylorism and reached about 100 cars a day.

Assembly-line production in Paris

English Wikipedia contains one inconsistency: its text says that more than 20,000 cars left the factory in 1920, while its own table gives 12,244 for that year. The yearly figures in the table add up to the stated total of 24,093. Citroën later visited Ford in Detroit, in 1923 and 1931, and the Type A and the Fiat 501 are described as the first European responses to Ford's move into Europe. For comparison, the Ford Model T had been in production in the United States since 1908.

Engine and chassis

The Type A used a water-cooled four-cylinder engine of 1,327 cc that produced 13 kW (18 hp). German Wikipedia gives a bore of 65 mm, a stroke of 100 mm and 13 kW (18 PS) at 2,100 rpm. It was advertised as a 10 CV car, its French fiscal horsepower, and the English-language "10 HP" name came from that rating. Per litre, the engine gave about 10 kW, roughly the specific output of Cadillac's first V8 of 1915 and nearly twice the 5 kW per litre of the Ford Model T. A three-speed gearbox without synchromesh drove the rear wheels through a bevel final drive with herringbone teeth; English Wikipedia notes, without a firm reference, that these gears inspired the double-chevron badge.

Suspension used inverted quarter-elliptic springs at the front and double quarter-elliptic springs at the rear. The brakes acted only on the rear wheels, worked by a hand lever, while a pedal operated a transmission brake. French Wikipedia lists the car among the first with left-hand steering.

The long-chassis car weighed 810 kg, so 13 kW gave about 16 kW per tonne; the lighter short chassis managed about 19 kW per tonne. That was enough for 65 km/h (40 mph). Our power-to-weight calculator shows how such figures compare with a current small car.

Economy and running figures

German Wikipedia lists fuel consumption of about 7.5 l/100 km and a 25-litre tank, which gives a range of roughly 330 km on a full tank. The short chassis had a track of 1,190 mm, and the car ran on 710 × 90 tyres.

Type A and Model T compared

On paper the two cars were close: similar power, similar weight and almost the same top speed. The Citroën had a smaller engine, a conventional three-speed gearbox and left-hand steering. What separated them was scale: in 1925 Ford built 9,000 to 10,000 Model Ts a day, more than three times the 2,810 Type A cars Citroën sold in 1919.

Bodies on two chassis lengths

The Type A came on two wheelbases. The short chassis was available only to order and was dropped in early 1920. It was 280 mm shorter in wheelbase, 600 mm shorter overall and 130 kg lighter than the long chassis.

Successors and the Javel factory

In 1921 the range consisted of the Type A Standard and the Type A Luxe, which kept the original engine, and the Type A Spécial; the larger 1,462 cc engine of the Spécial passed to the Type B2, which replaced the Type A from 1921. The Type B10 followed in 1925. French Wikipedia also notes that a 1919 Type A appeared in a world-tour episode of the television series Wheeler Dealers, filmed in Kolkata. The Quai de Javel factory itself was demolished in 1975, and the site is now the Parc André-Citroën. The rest of the company's story, from these first cars to today's range, is in our history of Citroën.