Renault

As the company name may hint, Renault is a French car maker that is known as one of the "Big Six" European automobile manufacturers. The history of this company can be followed back to its creation by inventor Louis Renault. This young engineer was interested in the principles of the modern combustion engine and and avid racing fan. He founded the Renault company during the last decade of the 19th century and enjoyed moderate success, although on a very local and regional scale.

It was not until he visited the United States in the early 20th century and viewed the assembly lines of Henry Ford that he began to appreciate the need for streamlining manufacturing. After returning to Europe and retooling his factories, production figures rose to as high as twenty-five thousand vehicles by 1924. The Second World War and Nazi occupation placed a severe limit on the ability of Renault to produce vehicles for anything other than the German war effort and it was not until a nationalization of Renault in the postwar period that the company began to see success again.

Currently, Renault manufactures a number of different vehicles and since its acquisition of Nissan during the 1990s, Renault has enjoyed considerable success. Since this time and with its acquisition of Samsung (the motor vehicle division) in 2000, Renault has continued to grow at a moderate pace. Renault vehicles are popular in both the United Kingdom and Europe and many feel that entry into the American marketplace is a future inevitability.