Heuliez

Heuliez is a French company that works as a production and design unit for various automakers. It specializes in producing short series for niche markets, such as convertibles or station-wagons.

Heuliez was created in 1920 by Adolphe Heuliez who started by making horse-drawn carts. As early as 1925, he assembled his first car, a Peugeot 177B. He also created a subsidiary company for the production of buses which was later sold.

Today, the main product of Heuliez is the retractable roof made for the Peugeot 206 CC. 350,000 units have been produced. It also produces entire cars, such as the Opel Tigra. Since 1985, Heuliez has produced more that 450,000 cars, with a staff of over 2,000. Recently, however, poor sales of the Tigra have forced Heuliez to reduce its staff by 541 and Opel has asked Heuliez to reduce its output from 200 to 50 cars/day until the end of 2006.

In October 2007 Heuliez asked for protection from creditors. [http://news.caradisiac.com/Heuliez-sous-protection-006] In July 2008 Argentum Motors will buy 60%.

Heuliez is trying to put a four-door convertible, similar to the Peugeot 407 Macarena prototype, into production within the next five years.

The main production plant is located in Cerizay in the Deux-Sèvres "département". The president of Heuliez is Paul Quéveau.

List of cars produced by Heuliez

*Citroën BX Station Wagon (1985-1993)
*Citroën Visa Chrono (1984)
*Citroën Visa Mille Pistes (1984)
*Citroën Visa Convertible (1984)
*Citroën BX 4TC (1986)
*Citroën CX Break (1989-1991)
*Citroën XM Break (1992-1999)
*Citroën Xantia Break (1995-2000)
*Opel Tigra Twin Top (2004-present)
*Peugeot 206 CC (2001-present)
*Peugeot 604 Limousine (1978-1984)

Current production of complete cars

*Opel Tigra Twin Top (2004-present)Since June 2004 Heuliez has produced the complete Opel Tigra TwinTop 2-seater Roadster which was engineered by Heuliez. It is equipped with a retractable hardtop and produced at a rate of 200 vehicles/day. Heuliez adds its logo (a capital H intertwined with a cartwheel) to the front wings of each car.

ee also

*Karmann in Germany
*Magna Steyr in Austria
*Bertone and Pininfarina in Italy
*Valmet Automotive in Finland

External links

* [http://www.heuliez.com/ Heuliez] - official web site