Peugeot is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world and is the second largest car manufacturer in Europe alone.

The company was founded by the Peugeot family in 1810 in Sochaux, France and even today Peugeot still has a large manufacturing plant and museum in the area.

Although it was founded in 1810, it was not until 1858 that the famous lion trademark (pictured) was granted and not until 1891 that the company started to produce their first automobiles.

In this early period of Peugeot’s history they showed promising signs of growth - in 1889 they only developed four cars but ten years later they were producing 300 cars.

Due to the uncomfortable driving of these initial vehicles it was decided that rubber should coat the wheels in order to cushion the impact of the bumpy road. As a result, Peugeot became the first car manufacturer to fit rubber tyres to their vehicles.

Almost thirty years later the company had gone from strength to strength and by 1929 the Peugeot 201 (pictured) was released, which was the cheapest production car available at the time. It was this car that helped to secure Peugeot through the Great Depression and saw them still in business after the depression subsided.

After the war, Peugeot started production on the 202 and manufactured over 14,000 vehicles. Then in 1947 the model was re-released as the 203, with suspension, hydraulic brakes and rack-and-pinion steering. The success of this model led to record sales figures and subsequent adapted models until the 1960’s.

Twenty years later Peugeot manufactured and released the Peugeot 205 in 1983 which helped the company to secure its position as a global manufacturing giant.

As of 1993 Peugeot released the 306 (pictured), which was a small and extremely popular family car that stayed in production until 2001; when it was replaced by the 307. However, the model kept going until 2002 as various cabriolet and estate versions were released.

More recently, the company has developed a diesel-electric hybrid Peugeot 307 that can achieve an impressive 80 mph; which makes it one of the most fuel efficient cars on the market. However, this model was only a concept car and was never released.

Peugeot are also developing hybrid electric power train technology and the Peugeot PROLOGUE HYmotion4. At the present, these have only been installed in concept cars but they could very well influence the future of the company.