Матис: Тарихы мен автомобиль өндірісінің дамуы

Mathis S. A. was an automobile manufacturer in Alsace that produced cars between 1910 and 1950. Founder Émile Mathis (1880–1956) was born in Strasbourg and died in Geneva.

Émile Mathis was a leading car dealer in Strasbourg, Alsace, handling Fiat, De Dietrich and Panhard Levassor, among other makes from his Auto Mathis Palace. Two models were designed for him by the young Ettore Bugatti. Made at his Graffenstaden factory he marketed them under the brand Hermes with 28, 40, or 98 hp engines. They were Mercedes like cars with chain drives. Designer and racing driver Dragutin Esser then created two cars of 2025 cc and 2253 cc which were built under license from Stoewer.

The Mathis 8/20 PS was first offered in 1910 but the first real success came just before World War I with two smaller models: Babylette had a 1.1 L engine and Baby had a 1.3 L engine. There was also a Mathis Knight model. During World War I, Mathis was sent by the German government (Alsace was then part of Germany) to Switzerland to buy tyres and after one of these trips, he went to France and remained there. After the war, Alsace became part of France and he was able to return to his factory. After the war, the firm's production increased quickly and soon became No.4 in France making more than 20,000 cars in 1927. Mathis attempted to compete with Citroën. The SB model of 1921 was followed by a six cylinder model (1188 cc) in 1923 and an eight cylinder in 1925. From 1927, Mathis followed a one model policy. MY has a side valve four cylinder engine (1.2 L). Not surprisingly, the next year saw the Emysix, with a 2288 cc six cylinder.

In 1930 there was an unsuccessful attempt to co operate with William Crapo Durant (the founder of General Motors in 1908). Their ambitious plan was to make 100,000 cars in Durant's Lansing, Michigan plant. However, Durant ran out of money before production could begin so Mathis stayed in France. The American company was Matam, Mathis America.

A short lived model named FOH in 1931 had a 3 Litre straight eight cylinder engine. More modern and successful was the 1445 cc Emyquatre in 1933, which possessed a synchromesh gearbox, hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension. Emyhuit (obviously, an 8 cylinder) came too late to prevent Mathis from a fast decline. The Mathis factories were closed.

Automobiles Ford S. A. Française's operations became uneconomic with the sudden erection of tariff barriers in 1932 against imported components, mainly from Britain. Ford and Mathis entered protracted and uncomfortable negotiations. In 1934 a joint venture of Ford and Mathis emerged (Matford SA Française, Strasbourg). Matford, which copied the style of contemporary British Ford models, soon became one of the biggest competitors the original Mathis factory closed down in 1935. The last models featured a V shaped windscreen. Matford ceased production in 1939.

Émile Mathis regained his Strasbourg factory just before World War II, but by now it was clear that he would not be able to remain so close to a part of the Franco German frontier which was expected to be a major zone of protracted conflict. Matthis, as an Alsatian, had been conscripted into the German army during the First World War but in 1916 had deserted from the German army (with a large amount of cash) while on a mission to buy trucks in Switzerland, and had then joined the French army. French defeat in June 1940 therefore found Émile Mathis high on the "wanted" list of the victorious Germans, but he was careful to get away in time and spent the rest of war in the United States with his company Matam. The plant at Poissy that opened in 1940 was not a Matford plant but a Ford of France plant, although the Ford 472A produced in it was little changed from the prewar Matford joint venture product.