rack-and-pinion steering on Traction Avant
The Company in 1936
- Citroën founds a subsidiary in Saigon (Vietnam), the "Société Automobile d'Extrême-Orient".
- Annual production : 41 587 vehicles.
The models in 1936
- In May, all the Traction Avant models are equipped with more precise rack-and-pinion steering.
- Citroën comes up with the idea of a low-priced car with a very small engine, the future 2 CV. The design brief reads as follows: "Four wheels under an umbrella, a safe and economical vehicle, capable of accommodating four people and 50 kg of luggage in comfort".
- At the Paris Motor Show, Citroën presents its first diesel-powered light utility vehicles: the 500DI (500 kg diesel), the 850DI (850 kg diesel) and the 23DI (1,500 kg diesel). The vehicles have a 7 bhp rating and are equipped with a high-turbulence, indirect-injection (1,767 cm3) engine with 4 cylinders developing 40 bhp at 3,650 rpm.
In the news in 1936
- The "Accords de Matignon" inaugurate the 40-hour working week, and two weeks' paid holiday a year.
- Germany occupies the Rhineland. The Berlin-Rome Axis is set up.
- Civil war breaks out in Spain. General Franco leads a military movement hostile to the republican government.
- Aragon publishes Les Beaux Quartiers, Céline Death on the Installment Plan, and André Gide Return from the USSR.
- Charlie Chaplin makes Modern Times.