CarBrandLogos archive · Citroën · 1919

CitroënType A

Europe's first mass-produced car, built by a munitions maker who had studied Henry Ford.

Photo: Umtymp5200 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Citroën history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Citroën Type A, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

André Citroën spent the First World War manufacturing artillery shells on the Quai de Javel in Paris, using production methods he had studied in the United States. When the war ended he had a large modern factory, a workforce trained in flow assembly, and no product. The Type A, announced in 1919, was the answer.

Chaine Citroen typea · AnonymousUnknown author · Public domain

Design and engineering

It was Europe's first car built on a genuine mass-production line, and it was sold complete — with lighting, a starter, wheels and tyres, and a hood — rather than as a bare chassis to be bodied by a coachbuilder, which was still normal practice. That, more than any mechanical feature, was the innovation: a customer could buy a car and drive it away at a fixed, published price.

In production

Mechanically it was conventional and deliberately so: a 1.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, three-speed gearbox and rear-wheel drive, offered as a torpedo tourer, a sports torpedo, an enclosed saloon and a coupé de ville. Just over 24,000 were built in two years before the improved Type B2 replaced it.

Legacy

Citroën also used the car to invent modern automotive marketing in France — dealer networks, published prices, taxi fleets, and later his name in lights on the Eiffel Tower. The Type A established a company that would spend the next seventy years being far more adventurous than this first product suggested.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1919–1921

Engine

Petrol: 1.3&nbsp

Body

"Torpedo"

Technical specification

The Type A, in detail.

Production: 1919–1921; 24,093 made
Body style: "Torpedo"; "Torpedo Sport"; "Conduite Intérieure" (saloon/sedan); "Coupe de Ville"
Layout: FR layout
Engine: Petrol: 1.3 L Straight-4
Transmission: 3-speed manual
Assembly: Parc André Citroën, Quai de Javel, Vaugirard, Paris, France
Manufacturer: Citroën