Book - Heuliez - Et Constructeur : un siècle d'histoire - 2012

Heuliez, Coachbuilder and Manufacturer: a Century of History - Yves Dubernard. ETAI, 2012. 192 pages, numerous illustrations in color & b/w. French text, hardcover with dust jacket. 31.5 x 24 cm. ISBN 9782726895771

--The role of Heuliez in the automotive industry is significant, yet remains relatively unknown to the general public. The story of what was once the largest French coachbuilder, later transformed into a car manufacturer, is a uniquely human and industrial adventure that this book brings to life through its different development phases. It reveals the unexpected wealth of products and projects the company was involved in, as well as the extreme diversity of its activities in the transportation world. Heuliez was present in almost every sector of this industry, often underrecognized given its creativity and contribution to progress. The people, both inside and outside the company, receive the important place they deserve in this book, because of their major contributions to the realization of projects born from their shared passion for cars.

After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, Yves Dubernard was hired at age 22 by Peugeot's styling center in La Garenne-Colombes. For four years he learned the fine art of coachbuilding. He then joined the styling department at Simca, a new experience that abruptly ended when this department was dissolved, as Chrysler decided to centralize this activity in its design department in England. In May 1971 he found a favorable environment with the coachbuilder Heuliez in the Vendée, where he founded and developed a styling center that would collaborate with numerous car manufacturers and form the basis for expanding the company’s industrial capacity. In 1984 Yves Dubernard ended his career at the PSA styling department, where he oversaw programs in collaboration with other manufacturers, as well as future studies for both Peugeot and Citroën. In 1992 he was given, as part of one of these projects, the opportunity to restore the working relationship with the company Heuliez, to which the research had been entrusted."