Berliet Type VB History

Rather than develop an entirely new design after the war, Marius Berliet acquired a 1916 Dodge and copied it as the Type VB, a 3,296 cc (15 CV) torpedo-bodied car exhibited at the October 1919 Paris Motor Show priced at 11,800 francs. The intention was American-style volume production — the factory was configured for 100 cars a day.

The plan collapsed quickly. Berliet's engineers had not ensured that the French steel used in the VB matched the quality of the North American steel in the original Dodge, and early cars suffered serious structural failures. Demand evaporated, leaving the factory grossly over-extended; the company recorded losses of 55 million francs in a single year and was placed in judicial administration in 1921.

The Type VB episode is one of the canonical cautionary tales of early French motoring: bold mass-production ambition undone by a material-quality shortcut. The company survived under receivership and eventually resumed car production with a more cautious approach.