The History Of Renault Premium Distribution

Renault Trucks is a French truck manufacturer with its corporate headquarters at Saint-Priest near Lyon.

Since 2001 it has been owned by Volvo Group.

From its beginnings in 1978 to 2002, the company was called Renault Véhicules Industriels (English: Renault Commercial Vehicles), from 1992 on officially written as RenaultV.I., with either form commonly abbreviated RVI. Until 1999, RVI also manufactured buses.

In 1956, the company Saviem was formed as a subsidiary company of Renault from the combination of Renault's own truck and bus production with the producers Somua and Latil. From 1957 on, Saviem was also used as the brand name for the trucks and buses produced by the company.

As a result of French industrial policy, in 1975 state-owned Renault also acquired the truck and bus producer Berliet from Michelin. In 1978, Berliet and Saviem were merged to form Renault Véhicules Industriels. Again, the old brand names were retained for two more years while the model lineups gradually were incorporated, until in 1980 they were replaced by the name Renault.

From 1975 on, Saviem also had been a member in the Club of Four, a cooperation between four European truck producers (Saviem, Volvo, DAF and Magirus-Deutz, which soon after became a part of Iveco) for the production of medium-sized trucks. The truck models resulting from this cooperation would be produced by Saviem and later Renault even until 2001 and also be sold on the North American market as Mack Mid-Liner. For the military trucks of the Sherpa range, Renault even today (July 2006) uses a derivative of the Club of Four cab.

In 1978, PSA Group had bought Chrysler's European operations. Included in the deal were commercial vehicle operations in the UK and Spain, which at that time used the brand name Dodge. PSA however sold them on to RVI in 1983, having itself little interest in the commercial vehicle market. The newly acquired operations in the UK had their origins in the commercial vehicle branch of the Rootes Group with originally carried the brand names Karrier and Commer. Some of the models built there were continued in production for several years by RVI, who also kept the Dodge brand name for these models, albeit in combination with the Renault badge. In Spain, however, where Renault already was recognized as a local automobile producer, the Dodge trucks, which originally had been developed by the manufacturer Barreiros Diesel, were rebadged as Renaults and soon after replaced by French-designed models.

In 1987, RVI took over from its mother company Renault a 40% stake in the American manufacturer Mack Trucks which became a fully-owned subsidiary of RVI in 1990.

In 1994, RVI took over the Czech bus manufacturer Karosa.

In 1997, RenaultV.I. entered into a cooperation agreement with the Finnish truck producer Sisu.

In 1999, the bus and coach operations under the brand names Renault and Karosa were split off from RVI and merged with Fiat-Iveco's bus and coach operations to form the jointly-owned subsidiary Irisbus. In 2003, Irisbus became a full subsidiary of Iveco and the brand Renault on its products was replaced by the brand Irisbus.

On 2 January 2001, RenaultV.I. (including Mack Trucks, but not RenaultS.A.'s stake in Irisbus) was sold to Volvo, which renamed it Renault Trucks in 2002. As a result, the mother company RenaultS.A. is ABVolvo's biggest shareholder, with a 20% stake, shares and voting rights.

As of 22 May 2006 Renault Trucks took over ACMAT.

Hybrid trucks

Hybrid truck:

Renault Puncher 280 HP / 20 or 26 tonnes.

Current truck models (as of July 2006)

There is no model name in the front of the vehicle (in some combinations, the trailer doesn't allow to see the model name in the rear part of the tractor unit).