Latil
{{short description|Defunct 20th century French automobile manufacturer}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Automobiles Industriels Latil S. A.
| image =
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| image_alt =
| image_caption =
| trade_name =
| native_name =
| romanized_name =
| former_name = {{ubl |Charles Blum & Cie |Charles Blum & Cie S.C.A. (trading as Automobiles Industriels Latil)}}
| predecessor = Compagnie Française d'Mecánique et d'Automobiles
|successor = Saviem
| type = Limited company
| industry = Automotive
| products = {{ubl |Commercial vehicles |Military vehicles}}
| founded = 1909
| founder = Charles Blum
|owner = Blum family (majority)
| defunct = 1955
| fate = Merged with Somua and Renault Poids Lourds into Saviem
| hq_location_city = Suresnes
| hq_location_country = France (from 1914)
| subsid = {{ubl |S. A. Belge des Automobiles Industriels Latil (Belgium) |Latil Industrial Vehicles Ltd. (United Kingdom)}}
| area_served = Western Europe
}}
Automobiles Industriels Latil, commonly known as Latil, was a French manufacturer of commercial and military vehicles created to manage the assets of the defunct Compagnie Française d'Mecánique et d'Automobiles, to market Georges Latil's {{em|avant-train Latil}}, an early front-wheel drive system. The company was established in 1909 by entrepreneur Charles Blum as Charles Blum & Cie. It started to use {{em|Automobiles Industriels Latil}} in the 1910s as a trading name. The company started to produce military vehicles by the 1910s and commercial ones in great numbers by the end of World War I. In 1928, the company adopted its trading name as its legal name. It was dissolved in 1955 after being merged into the Saviem group.
History
=Early years and predecessors=
In 1898, Georges Latil and Aloïs Korn established an enterprise in Marseille (Korn et Latil) to market a Latil invention, the {{em|avant-train Latil}}, a kit to convert carriages into front-wheel drive vehicles. In 1901, Latil and Korn moved its operations to Levallois-Perret and created the {{em|Compagnie Française d'Mecánique et d'Automobiles}} to sell it in Paris. Despite an initial success, the company was declared bankrupt.{{cite magazine |date=December 2013 |title=Si l'historie de Latil |trans-title=If the Latil history... |language=French |issue=162 |magazine=La Lettre |publisher=Fondation Berliet |location=Paris}} By 1905, Charles Blum became an investor and administrator of the company's assets. In 1909, he took over the assets and created a new company called {{em|Charles Blum & Cie.}} to manage them. He kept Georges Latil and his brother Lazare as part of the technical managing team. In June 1912, the company was reorganised as a {{em|société en commandite par actions}} and renamed {{em|Charles Blum & Cie S.C.A.}}, later trading as {{em|Automobiles Industriels Latil}}.{{cite book |last1=Loubet |first1=Jean-Louis |title=L'industrie automobile, 1905–1971 |trans-title=The automotive industry, 1905–1971 |language=French |year=1999 |publisher=Droz |isbn=2-600-00317-7 |pages=188–189}} That same year, Blum established another company to operate a fleet of vehicles equipped with the {{em|avant-train Latil}}. In 1914, Latil opened a new, larger production plant in Suresnes to replace Levallois-Perret. The Suresnes plant had 20,000 square metres (m2) of covered area in a site of 30,000 m2.
=World War I and market expansion=
By 1911, the company started to develop field artillery haulage, for which they created tractors with the layout of a truck. Latil produced one of its first four-wheel, all-terrain vehicle called the TAR, which it sold to the army to use on the Voie Sacrée during World War I to supply troops with 155 mm guns.{{cite web|url=https://www.arquus-defense.com/birth-georges-latil|title=BIRTH OF GEORGES LATIL|date=n.d.|publisher=ARQUSS|access-date=2022-04-23}}{{cite web|url=https://www.fondationberliet.org/la-collection/latil-guerre-1914-tar/|title=LE FORMIDABLE TAR LATIL!|date=n.d.|publisher=Foundation Berliet|access-date=2022-04-23|language=fr}}
After the war, the company also fully entered into the commercial vehicle business, including trucks.{{cite magazine |year=2008 |title=Saviem |language=French |issue=10 |last=Fieux |first=Loïc |magazine=Camions d'Hier et d'Aujourd'hui |publisher=Histoire et Collections |location=Paris |issn=1961-0203 |pages=36–38}} In 1924, it unveiled the first of the TL series of four-wheel drive multipurpose tractors.{{cite book |last1=Vauvillier |first1=François |last2=Touraine |first2=Jean-Michel |last3=Jeudy |first3=Jean-Gabriel |title=L'Automobile Sous l'Uniforme 1939–1940 |trans-title=The Car in Uniform 1939–1940 |language=French |year=1992 |publisher=Editions Ch. Massin |isbn=2-7072-0197-9 |pages=66, 72, 76, 116, 153, 159, 182, 193, 208, 218–219, 222}}
=Late interwar years and World War II=
In November 1928, all the Latil group companies were merged into {{em| Charles Blum & Cie S.C.A.}} which became a {{em|société anonyme}} and was renamed as {{em|Automobiles Industriels Latil}}.{{citation |year=1938 |title=Annuarie Desfossés 1937 |publisher=Desfossés Financial Information Agency |location=Paris |pages=824–825}}
In the 1930s, Latil introduced diesel engines using Gardner licence for direct injection.{{cite magazine |year=1995 |title=Les Latil H14 et H16 A1 |trans-title=The Latils H14 and H16 A1 |language=French |issue=25 |last=Colombet |first=Jean-François |magazine=Charge utile |publisher=Histoire et Collections |location=Paris |issn=1266-8508 |pages=26–28}} The company also opened a second plant at Saint-Cloud.
During World War II, it collaborated with the ammunitions company MAP and sold tractors under the name MAP-Latil.{{cite web|url=https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/machinery-georges-latil-and-the-constant-velocity-joint/|title=Machinery: Georges Latil and the constant velocity joint|last=Roberts|first=Justin|date=2022-01-01|publisher=Agriland|access-date=2022-04-23}} After the occupation of France, the Latil plants produced vehicles for the Wehrmacht and only escaped Allied bombing because they were in densely populated areas.{{citation |year=1941 |title=Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute 67 |publisher=United States Naval Institute|page=1333}} In October 1944, Blum, being a French Jew, died exiled in New York.{{cite journal |year=1990 |title=Les grands constructeurs privés et la reconstruction. Citroën et Peugeot 1944–1951 |trans-title=The big private manufacturers and the Reconstruction. Citroën and Peugeot 1944–1951 |language=French |volume=9 |issue=3 |last=Loubet |first=Jean-Louis |journal=Histoire, économie & société |publisher=Armand Colin|issn=1777-5906 |doi=10.3406/hes.1990.1555 |page=451}}
=Final years and merger=
In 1945, the Pons Plan reduced the number of vehicle manufacturers from 28 to seven and Latil was made part of the Peugeot-led grouping.
After World War II, the company found it increasingly difficult to compete with its larger rivals. In 1948, it simplified its forward control range by introducing the H14 and H16 A1s, with a shared cabin, standardised components and using mostly just a couple of engines with Gardner licence.
In 1955, Latil was combined with the heavy vehicles division of Renault and with Somua to form Saviem. The Blum family and other stockholders kept shares in the new company until it became a wholly owned Renault subsidiary in 1959.{{cite book |last=Greve |first=Jean François |editor-last=Moguen-Toursel |editor-first=Marine |title=Firm strategies and public policy in integrated Europe (1950–1980): confrontation and learning of economic actors |year=2007 |publisher=Peter Lang |chapter=Stratégies d'enterprise et action publique |isbn=978-90-5201-045-8 |pages=197–231}} The Latil truck range was gradually phased out, initially being sold as Latil and then briefly as Saviem-LRS and Saviem.{{cite book |last=Kuipers |first=J. F. J. |title=A history of commercial vehicles of the world |year=1972 |publisher=Oakwood Press |isbn=0-85361-114-9 |page=82}}
Following the merging, Latil's TL tractor range was also sold as Latil and then as Saviem. In 1962, the licence for the tractors' production was sold to the Creusot-Loire conglomerate, which marketed them as the Latil Batignolles.{{cite magazine |year=2020 |title=Saviem 1960–1961 |language=French |issue=Hors-série 100 |last=Colombet |first=Jean-François |magazine=Charge utile |publisher=Histoire et Collections |location=Paris |pages=52, 71 |issn=1266-8508}}
=Latil in the UK=
Latil's British subsidiary, Latil Industrial Vehicles Ltd., was established in 1924. Up to 1932, Latil's products were imported from France. From 1932{{cite book |last1=Stevens-Stratten |first1=S.W |title=British Lorries 1900–1945 |year=2019 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |isbn=978-1-4456-9451-1}} to either 1937{{cite journal |date=May 2022 |last1=Blenkinsop |first1=Mike |last2=Blenkinsop |first2=Julie |title=The Latil (Part Two) |journal=Heritage Commercials |location=Yalding |publisher=Kelsey |page=44 |issn=1476-2110}} or 1939, Latil licensed local assembly (mostly Latil's all-wheel drive tractors) to Shelvoke and Drewry. From late 1933 onwards, British-assembled Latil tractors were marketed as Latil Trauliers.
After World War II, Latil's tractors in the UK were partially assembled by US Concessionaires Ltd.{{cite magazine |year=1949 |title='Roughing it on' with a four-wheel drive tractor |volume=89 |issue=2305 |last=Cotton |first=L. J. |magazine=The Commercial Motor |publisher=Temple Press |location=London |issn=0010-3063}} The British assembled tractors usually changed the original engines for local ones, mostly Meadows units.
Products
=Commercial vehicles=
=Tractors and military vehicles=
==1911–1928==
- TI (light tractor){{cite magazine |date=June–July 2007 |title=Les tracteurs d'artillerie à quatre roues motrices. II - Latil, le pérenne |trans-title=Four-wheel drive artillery tractors. II - Latil, the perennial |language=French |issue=77 |last=Vauvillier |first=François |magazine=Guerre, Blindés et Matériel |publisher=Histoire et Collections |location=Paris |issn=2492-1297 |pages=70–72}}
- U (light tractor)
- TP (cargo tractor, 4x4 commercial truck,{{cite magazine |year=1921 |title=Les camions et tracteurs Latil |trans-title=Latil's tractors and trucks |language=French |volume=17 |issue=17 |magazine=Omnia |location=Paris |issn=1149-2171 |pages=371–372 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9805347r/f339.item}} armoured truck)
- TH (heavy artillery tractor, commercial tractor/truck)
- TAR ( heavy artillery tractor, commercial tractor)
- TAR 2
- TAR 3
- Tourand-Latil (self-propelled plow/tractor){{cite magazine |year=1919 |title=Le charrue Tourand-Latil |trans-title=The self-propelled plow Tourand-Latil |language=French |last=Contet |first=A. |volume=3 |issue=13 |magazine=Camions et tracteurs: supplément mensuel de la Vie automobile |location=Paris |publisher=Dunod |page=26 |issn=1149-2198 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5689845s/f14.item.r=Latil%20T%20A%20R%20%20tracteur}}
- TL (agricultural and forestry tractor, hauler tractor,{{cite magazine |year=1924 |title=Le XIXe Salon de l'Automobile |trans-title=The XIX Salon |language=French |last=Delanghe |first=G. |volume=85 |issue=22 |magazine=Le Génie civil |location=Paris |issn=0016-6812 |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6487727m/f3.item.r=Latil%20tracteur |pages=491–493}} medium artillery tractor, rangefinding for anti-aircraft units hauler)
==1928–1945==
- F SPB4 (military truck)
- TAR 4
- TAR 5
- F TAR
- AMD Latil (prototype scouting armoured car){{cite book |first=Pierre |last=Touzin |title=Les Véhicules Blindés Français, 1900–1944 |trans-title=The French Armoured Vehicles, 1900–1944 |language=French |year=1979 |publisher=Éditions EPA |isbn=2-85120-094-1 |page=27, 64}}
- TAR H1 (heavy tractor prototype)
- JTL (agricultural and forestry tractor, hauler tractor)
- KTL (agricultural and forestry tractor, hauler tractor, medium artillery tractor)
- GTL (prototype artillery tractor)
- M7 T1 (light infantry, liaison and reconnaissance tractor)
- M7 Z1 (light artillery tractor)
- M2 TL6/M3 TL6/H4 TL6 (multipurpose tractor,{{citation |year=1935 |title=Le tracteur léger Latil type 'TL6' |trans-title=The TL6 light tractor |publisher=Latil |location=Suresnes |language=French}} military tractor){{cite web |url=https://www.mvcgfrance.org/latil-et-les-militaires-des-talents-multiples-mais-toujours-en-serie-limitee/ |title=Latil et les militaires : des talents multiples… mais toujours en série limitée |trans-title=Latil and the military: multiple abilities… but always in limited series |language=French |publisher=French Federation - Military Vehicle Conservation Group |access-date=16 August 2023}}
- M2 TZ (medium artillery and military transport tractor)
- N (chenillette tractor)
- TAR H2 (heavy artillery and workshop tractor)
- M2 TX (prototype heavy workshop tractor)
- MAN AS250 (German MAN agricultural tractor assembled by Latil from 1943 onwards, as MAN focused exclusively on military vehicles. After the war, it was briefly marketed as Latil AS250){{cite web |url=http://www.fahrzeugseiten.de/Traktoren/MAN/AS250/as250.html |title=MAN AS250 |language=German |work=fahrzeugseiten.de |access-date=17 August 2023}}
- TL7-RR (rail/route tractor)
==1945–1955==
File:Latil forest trac, 42.jpg
- H4 TL9 (agricultural and forestry tractor)
- H14 TL10/H11 TL10 (agricultural and forestry tractor,multipurpose tractor)
- M17 T1 (prototype light truck and staff vehicle){{cite book |last1=Kochnev |first1=Evgeniy Dmitrievich |title=Энциклопедия военных автомобилей 1769–2006 |trans-title=Encyclopædia of Military Vehicles 1769–2006 |language=Russian |year=2006 |publisher=Za Rulem Publishing |isbn=5-9698-0040-6 |page=263}}
- M18 T2 (4x4 military truck)
- TRPZ (6×4/6x6 tractor/truck){{cite book |last1=Vanderveen |first1=Bart |title=Wheels & Trucks Historic Military Vehicles Directory |year=1989 |publisher=Battle of Britain Prints International |isbn=0-900913-57-6 |pages=85–86}}
{{clear}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Commons category|Latil vehicles}}
Category:Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of France
Category:Defunct truck manufacturers
Category:Defunct bus manufacturers
Category:Bus manufacturers of France
Category:Truck manufacturers of France
Category:French companies established in 1909
Category:1909 establishments in France
Category:1955 disestablishments in France
Category:1955 mergers and acquisitions
Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers of France
Category:Fire service vehicle manufacturers
Category:Construction equipment manufacturers of France