Louis Delâge

Who was Louis Delâge?

Louis Delâge, was a French pioneer automotive engineer and manufacturer.

Born Pierre Louis Delâge to a family of modest means in Cognac in the Charente département of France, as an infant he lost the sight in one eye. At the age of sixteen, he went to study at a trade school Arts & Metiers in the city of Angers, graduating with an engineering degree in 1893. Delage then fulfilled his military obligation and was stationed in Algeria. Discharged in 1895, he found work with a railway company in the south of France but in 1900 moved to Paris. There, he was employed in the engineering and design department of a motor vehicle manufacturing concern until 1903 when he received an offer to join the fledgling Renault automobile company.

Delâge realized the enormous potential for the automobile as demand soon began to outstrip production. Filled with innovative ideas of his own, in 1905 he raised enough money to open his own assembly plant in a converted barn in Levallois at the outskirts of Paris. The Delage Automobile Company grew rapidly and their vehicles soon gained a reputation for their stylish appearance and quality and as a dominant force in motor racing. However, the Great Depression of the 1930s took its toll and car sales plummeted. By 1935 his company was forced into liquidation, the rights to the Delage name auctioned off to the Delahaye car company. The new owners unceremoniously dismissed Delâge with a penurious pension.