By: Rénald Fortier
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
“Petrol will never kill electricity, especially if the latter is defended by a Kriéger.” Louis Antoine Jules Tony Kriéger and his electric automobiles, including some of the first hybrid vehicles on planet Earth, part 4
The Kriéger roadster entered in the 1924 Concours des véhicules électriques, Paris, France. Charles Dantin, “Automobiles – Les Essais contrôlés de véhicules à traction électrique à accumulateurs (octobre 1924).” Le Génie civil, 27 December 1924, 589.
Welcome aboard, my reading friend. Yours truly dares to hope that you enjoyed the first 3 parts of our examination of the career of the French businessman / engineer Louis Antoine Jules Tony Kriéger. I have the same hope regarding the 4th and final one.
As you might imagine, Kriéger continued to present abroad the achievements of the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques. One of its hybrid omnibuses shuttled between two well-known sites in Berlin, German Empire, and the site of the Internationale Motorwagen-Ausstellung which was held in February 1906, for example. The hybrid truck equipped with a powerful searchlight mentioned in the 3rd part of this article was in the firm’s stand. There it attracted the attention of many officers of the Deutsches Heer.
One of the Kriéger hybrid omnibuses of the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus Actien Gesellschaft public transit company, Berlin, German Empire. F. Drouin. “Automobiles – La voiture pétroléo-électrique, système Kriéger.” Le Génie civil, 1 June 1907, 65.
Those efforts bore fruits. Indeed, no later than 1906, the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques obtained an order from a Berlin public transit company, Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus Actien Gesellschaft, for a certain number of double-decker hybrid omnibuses. Another Berlin firm, this time a fiacre operator, also ordered a certain number of electric or hybrid vehicles. Yours truly, however, wonders whether those vehicles were manufactured in France or the German Empire. Do you know, my reading friend with encyclopedic knowledge?
At the beginning of December 1906, while Kriéger staff were busy preparing the firm’s stand at the Salon de l’automobile, du cycle et des sports, the latter returned from Torino / Turin, Italy, at the wheel of a hybrid vehicle. The businessman had completed this journey of 775 or so kilometres (480 or so miles) in 2 and a half days. The French President, Clément Armand Fallières, congratulated him personally during his visit to said exhibition. Crossing the Alps in December, in an automobile without a heating system, took some doing I would say.
And no, yours truly does not know if Kriéger had driven that hybrid vehicle from Paris to Turin, which would mean he had in fact covered a distance of 1 550 or so kilometres (965 or so miles).
As you might have expected, Kriéger placed the vehicle he had just driven in said stand of the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques, and this as quickly as he could.
And yes, Fallières was indeed mentioned in March 2022 and August 2023 issues of our breathtaking blog / bulletin / thingee.
Speaking (typing?) of Italy, would you believe that the stand of the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques took pride of place at the Esposizione Internazionale di Automobili held in Turin in February and March 1907? If I may take the liberty of quoting the title of a 1985 song (!) by the British duo Eurythmics, would I lie to you?
And yes, again, the hybrid vehicle recently driven by Kriéger between Turin and Paris, France, occupied the place of honour in the place of honour. It turned lots of heads.
Did Kriéger yet again drive that vehicle from Paris to Turin, and then back to Paris, you ask, my facetious reading friend? I have no idea.
But that was not all.
In May 1907, the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques won the great gold medal awarded during the Pervaya Mezhdunarodnaya Vystavka Avtomobiley, Dvigateley, Velosipedov i Sporta, in other words the first international exhibition of automobiles, engines, bicycles and sports, held in Sankt-Peterbúrg / Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire.
The Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques suffered a heavy blow in March 1907, however. Its parent company, the Société française pour l’industrie et les mines, was in fact dissolved. Shortly after, a powerful French financial group took control of the automobile manufacturer and the Société des garages Kriéger et Brasier.
One of the Kriéger grand tourer hybrid fiacres of the Compagnie parisienne des taxautos électriques. Anon., “La décennale du Salon de l’automobile.” Le Sport universel illustré, 1 December 1907, 810.
On a more positive note, a new and very successful hybrid fiacre model was present in increasing numbers in Paris from the fall of 1907 onward. Those vehicles belonged to the Compagnie parisienne des taxautos électriques, a firm created for that purpose by the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques or its new owner, I think. Would you believe that the new firm had ordered no less than 150 vehicles? And no, yours truly does not know if all of them entered service.
A grand tourer hybrid fiacre identical to the one you just saw could be rented for a whole day and cover a 200-kilometre (125 or miles) journey for the modest sum of 100 francs, an amount which corresponded to a little less than $700 in 2024 currency.
And no, my gourmet reader friend, I very much doubt that a well-stocked pic-a-nic basket was included in that cost. Sorry, Yogi Bear. The driver, or wattman, in impeccable attire, was.
Allow me to emphasise that the great simplicity of Kriéger hybrid vehicles, a simplicity exemplified by the absence of clutch, gearbox and other contraptions, eliminated the risk of damage associated with these assemblies which were too often damaged by inexperienced or careless drivers.
It should be noted that the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques manufactured some hybrid ambulances in 1907.
For the 10th edition of the Salon de l’automobile, du cycle et des sports which was held in November and December 1907, the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques pulled out all the stops. No fewer than 12 electric and hybrid vehicles, from fiacres to trucks and omnibuses, were on display at the two sites.
The firm also participated in the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung which was held in Berlin in December 1907, but more modestly one must admit. This being said (typed?), Kriéger electric or hybrid vehicles were indeed present in the capital of the German Empire.
To my great surprise, yours truly must admit to having found few traces of the activities of the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques throughout 1908. Indeed, I did not find the slightest trace of a participation in the Salon de l’automobile, du cycle et des sports which was held in November and December 1908. I kid you not. That absence was curious to say the least, or not.
You see, the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques went into judicial liquidation in February 1908. Assets of the firm were apparently sold during the following months.
And yes, my reading friend, the firm’s massive participation in the Salon de l’automobile, du cycle et des sports held in November and December 1907 might have been a desperate and, in the end, unsuccessful attempt to generate sales.
Incidentally, the Compagnie parisienne des taxautos électriques seemingly went under as well in 1908.
What was curious was that 3 Kriéger trucks, hybrid vehicles I think, participated in the Concours de véhicules industriels organised by the Automobile-Club de France, under the patronage of the Ministère de la Guerre, a competition which was held in October and November 1909. Those 3 vehicles were disqualified for various more or less serious reasons.
In any event, the disappearance of the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques was largely explained by the irresistible popularity of the gasoline engine and what many observers called a crisis in the French automobile industry, a crisis caused by the uncontrolled multiplication of manufacturers, often poorly financed or poorly run – or both. Mind you, the dissolution of its parent company, la Société française pour l’industrie et les mines, in 1907, did not help either.
Mechanical problems afflicting the costly vehicles of the Compagnie parisienne des taxautos électriques might have been the last nail in the coffin of the Compagnie parisienne des voitures électriques.
During their brief existence (1895-1908), the firms in which Kriéger played a crucial role seemed to produce 800 to 1 500 vehicles, I think. License holders might, I repeat might, have produced a tad more (2 000?).
Several of those French and foreign vehicles were still running in the late 1920s. A fiacre produced in France but delivered to a British firm was in fact still running in 1934. A reading of its odometer revealed that it had travelled more than 200 000 kilometres (more than 125 000 miles), in other words 5 times the circumference of the Earth at the equator. Wah!
Yours truly has little information on what Kriéger did between the late 1900s and early 1920s. Sorry. He became the founding president of the Syndicat des Constructeurs de Véhicules électriques de France in 1923, however.
Kriéger was also director of the central laboratory of the Compagnie française Thomson-Houston in 1924. The date of arrival in this position within that subsidiary of General Electric Company, an American giant mentioned in the first part of this article, is unfortunately unknown to me.
An electric delivery van entered in the Essais contrôlés de véhicules à traction électrique par accumulateurs of September and October 1923 by the Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger, Paris, France. Charles Dantin, “Automobiles – Les Essais contrôlés de véhicules à traction électrique par accumulateurs (25 septembre-10 octobre 1923). » Le Génie civil, 29 December 1923, 637.
Wishing to encourage the application of electricity to motor vehicles, the Office national des recherches scientifiques et industrielles et des inventions, as well as the Union des syndicats de l’électricité and the Automobile-Club de France, organised the Essais contrôlés de véhicules à traction électrique par accumulateurs in September and October 1923.
The Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger, I think, entered 3 vehicles, 1 coupe and 2 delivery vans. The dozen other participants seemingly registered commercial vehicles, trucks or vans.
The vehicles submitted by Kriéger behaved very well, by the way. That was not surprising. Two of them had travelled 4 to 6 000 or so kilometres (2 500 to 3 750 or so miles) before the competition. The third one had around 30 000 kilometres (more 18 600 miles) under the hood, all of that done by no less than 7 different drivers.
And it went without saying that the Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger, a small firm in all likelihood, had sold a few vehicles to companies and / or individuals.
And yes, my reading friend, the Office national des recherches scientifiques et industrielles et des inventions was indeed mentioned in October 2023 and May 2024 issues of our stunning blog / bulletin / thingee.
And no, I do not know when the Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger, was created. Sorry.
Still wishing to encourage that same application of electricity to motor vehicles, the trio of organisations mentioned above organised a Concours des véhicules électriques which was held in October 1924. The Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger entered 3 vehicles, a torpedo / roadster and 2 delivery vans, using the same chassis.
And here is one of the vans in question…
One of the 2 electric delivery vans entered in the October 1924 Concours des véhicules électriques by the Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger, Paris, France. Anon., “Nouveautés, curiosités, nouvelles – Le Concours de Bellevue des véhicules électriques.” Omnia, December 1924, 620.
A photograph of the roadster was at the beginning of the 4th part of this article.
Incidentally, that roadster / torpedo was a 2-seater convertible automobile.
Here again, the vans which took part in the Concours des véhicules électriques of October 1924 behaved very well. Prepared a tad hastily, the torpedo experienced some small glitches.
The Office national des recherches scientifiques et industrielles et des inventions might have had in mind the fact that France had to import large quantities of oil to run its road fleet. That oil was very expensive and harmed the balance of payments, even though the price of that fuel did not compare in any way to what the typical taxpayer had to pay in 2024.
In any event, that high cost of oil imports acquired a somewhat greater importance following the financial / monetary and political crisis which shook France in the spring of 1926.
It was when that spring ended, that is to say in June 1926, that a Concours des véhicules électriques à accumulateurs was held, organised by, you guessed it, the Office national des recherches scientifiques et industrielles et des inventions.
The taxicab entered in the June 1926 Concours des véhicules électriques à accumulateurs by the Société anonyme des automobiles Peugeot, Paris, France. Anon., “Échos et variétés.” Omnia, August 1926, 156.
This time, it was through the Société anonyme des automobiles Peugeot that Kriéger participated in that competition. The latter had in fact sold rights to his technology to that important French firm, at an undetermined date.
Indeed, with rumours going around since October 1924 that the Société anonyme des automobiles Peugeot intended to place a few electric taxicabs in the streets, boulevards and avenues of Paris in 1925, one was entitled to wonder if those rights were granted in the fall of 1924.
In any event, the management of the Société anonyme des automobiles Peugeot entered 3 electric vehicles in the 1926 competition: a passenger car, a delivery van and a taxicab.
Those three vehicles worked wonderfully. Indeed, they topped the rankings. The taxicab, for example, was found able to travel 192 or so kilometres (119 or so miles) at 23 or so kilometres/hour (14 or so miles/hour).
You will tell me that those performances were not astonishing and that was quite true, but the fact was that, in the opinion of various commentators of the time, the streets, boulevards and avenues of Paris would be so busy before long that any attempt to move a tad quickly would prove futile.
Dare I raise here the incongruity of owning, in 2024, an SSC North America Tuatara, a Hennessey Special Vehicles Venom F5 or a Bugatti Chiron Supersport 300+, hyper-powerful sports cars capable of speeding at more than 482.7808175 kilometres/hour (more than 300 miles/hour) on a good, straight road, when the maximum speed on a highway was 110 or even 100 kilometres/hour (68 and 62 or so miles/hour)? And what about the average speeds in city centres, and…
I understand nothing of the mindset of a hyper-rich male Homo sapiens, you say, my reading friend? You are absolutely right, but we digress.
Before I forget, the first Peugeot electric taxicabs apparently hit the road around June 1925 at the latest. They might not have been produced in large numbers, however.
I must also admit that I have no idea of what Kriéger did between the mid-1920s and the end of the 1930s. And no, I do not know when the Société anonyme des automobiles électriques Kriéger disappeared. Sorry. Again.
Another phase of Kriéger’s career began around July 1940, however.
As you know, in June, France crumbled under the onslaught of National Socialist Germany. A descent into hell began which would continue, for many French men and women, until 1945. While the ********, sorry, while the occupier monopolised more and more resources of all kinds, civilian populations had to survive as best they could.
Gasoline soon became scarce, which considerably limited the number of private vehicles available to urban populations, a minority at that time, which could afford an automobile. If I may allow myself to quote, out of context obviously, the Québec philosopher tramp clown Sol, played masterfully by his creator, the late Marc Favreau, what to do, what to do?
Some people quickly suggested the use of devices towed or carried by an automobile to transform wood or charcoal into combustible gas, types of devices known as gasifiers.
Other people went even further. They proposed using light vehicles, so called vélomobiles / vélocars / cyclecars / automouches, equipped with pedals and / or an auxiliary engine.
Still others proposed using electric vehicles.
Charles Emmanuel Mildé, boss of Charles Mildé Fils & Compagnie, an important firm closely linked to the electrification of Paris from the 1880s onward, joined forces with Kriéger in July 1940 to create such vehicles. They seemingly set up a small firm, the Société Mildé-Kriéger perhaps.
Would you believe that Charles Mildé, Mildé’s father and founder of the family firm, had also founded the Société des automobiles Mildé & Compagnie in 1897 to produce electric vehicles? That production apparently ended around 1909 (passenger cars) and 1914 (utility vehicles), but I digress.
Mildé and Kriéger were wise not to embark on the development of entirely new vehicles. They joined forces with Gilbert Baudot, the boss of a French coachbuilder, the Compagnie française des automobiles Corre ‘La Licorne,’ whose piston-powered passenger cars and delivery vans were already well known.
In fact, it looked as if Baudot was the one who contacted Mildé and Kriéger, in order to develop an electric version of his La Licorne A 163, a moderately sized 4-seater coupe / half-sedan. The latter agreed to help him out, provided that the new vehicle bore their names.
Need I remind you that a bodybuilder like the Compagnie française des automobiles Corre ‘La Licorne’ manufactured ready-to-run vehicles using chassis and engines produced by other firms? No? Very good. Let us move on.
A typical Mildé-Kriéger (La Licorne type) electric delivery van. Charles Faroux, “L’électricité reine du trafic urbain – Deux grands noms: Mildé… Kriéger.” L’Auto, 24 and 25 December 1941, unpaginated.
A typical Mildé-Kriéger (La Licorne) Type AEK coupe / half-sedan. Anon., “Automobiles – Les véhicules électriques à accumulateurs. » Le Génie civil, 24 and 31 May 1941, 205.
The first Mildé-Kriéger electric vehicle left the workshops of an electrical equipment maker, Le Conducteur électrique blindé incombustible Société anonyme, I think, and this as early as November. Yes, November 1940. Yours truly is, however, unable to say whether that was a delivery van or the electric version of the A 163, a coupe / half-sedan called the Type AEK.
And no, the term blindé, in English armoured, found in the preceding paragraph had nothing to do with armoured vehicles. It referred to the protection given to an electrical conductor.
In any event, Mildé, Kriéger and Baudot seemingly had a lot of difficulty series-producing their vehicles. Those difficulties were seemingly not linked to the abuses of the German occupiers, however. Nay. The spokes put in the wheels of the three men stemmed in fact from the indifference of the French administration. Mind you, that administration might well have found itself faced with a shortage of raw materials, lead and copper, intended for the rechargeable batteries and dynamos.
Another potential problem was the need to have a sufficient number of external and fixed transformers, intended for charging stations, I believe, which were both heavy and bulky.
In any event, Mildé, Kriéger and Baudot seemingly completed only 100 to 125 Type AEKs between November 1940 (?) and July 1942, which was not much. Those vehicles circulated in Paris and other major cities in France, however.
Automobile enthusiast that you are, my reading friend, you will undoubtedly be delighted to learn that this automobile could reach 40 or so kilometres/hour (25 or so miles/hour) and travel a distance of 100 or so kilometres (60 or so miles), at a lower speed of course. Nothing very impressive, I freely admit, but sufficient for urban driving.
The problem was that the Type AEK cost around 70% (!) more than the A 163, or 42 500 francs in 1941, a sum which corresponded to about $28 750 in 2024 currency. A sum which corresponded to 5.5 or so years of salary for a housed and fed French agricultural worker, or almost 10 years of salary for a housed and fed French maid. Double wah!
Mind you, a person who travelled a distance of 38 000 or so kilometres (23 500 or so miles) over the months would have saved approximately 13 300 francs in gasoline purchases, provided of course that he or she was able to find some. And yes, those 13 300 francs corresponded to approximately $9 000 in 2024 currency. Such savings largely explained why many Type AEKs were used in Paris as taxicabs.
Mildé, Kriéger and Baudot also supervised the production of a number of Type WEK electric delivery vans in 1942, vehicles which were quite possibly used the chassis used by the delivery van mentioned above. With the shortage of metals hitting harder and harder, the bodywork of those vehicles was entirely made of wood. That bodywork apparently came from the workshops of the great Parisian coachbuilder Henri Albert Maurice Chapron.
The aforementioned mention of July 1942 as the end date for production of the Type AEK was significant. It was in fact at that moment that the Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich, in other words the German military high command in France, ordered the xenophobic / traditionalist / puppet / nationalist / collaborationist / authoritarian / antisemitic government of Vichy to ban the production of electric vehicles.
The reasons behind that shutdown were multiple: shortages of lead, copper and aluminum for rechargeable batteries, dynamos and bodywork on the one hand and power cuts galore on the other. It went without saying that those shortages and power cuts resulted from the occupation of a large part of French territory by National Socialist Germany.
And yes, the production of the Mildé-Kriéger delivery vans probably ended in July 1942.
The end of production of Mildé-Kriéger electric vehicles obviously did not lead to their disappearance from the streets of various French cities. In fact, the standard delivery van was seemingly available on the market, in very small numbers, at least until 1948, as the following advertisement indicated.
An advertisement of the Société anonyme General Engineering of Liège, Belgium, concerning the sale of Mildé-Kriéger delivery vans. Anon., “Société anonyme General Engineering.” Englebert Magazine, January-February 1948, unpaginated.
The Société Mildé-Kriéger might have had a vehicle on display at the 1947 Salon de l’automobile et du cycle, held in October and November. Given the many shortages that France faced at the time, the management might have hoped to have hoped that its electric vans would find customers. Those hopes ultimately proved to be unfounded, with the result that the Société Mildé-Kriéger quietly went belly up.
In any event, Kriéger took up the position of consulting engineer at the Société générale de constructions électriques et mécaniques no later than July 1945. He might, I repeat might, subsequently have become de facto head of the central laboratory of that French industrial giant then better known under the name of Alsthom.
Alsthom, a giant known in 2024 as Alstom Société anonyme.
Yes, yes, Alstom without an H. Alstom, the French multinational which produced the Citadis Spirit used by OC Transpo, the organisation responsible for urban transport in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Citadis Spirit is a light rail vehicle whose use, since September 2019, has certainly not been without pain, that gizmo, as well as the railway tunnels, tracks and catenaries sometimes posing problems, but I digress.
Kriéger died in Paris in May 1951, just before his 83rd birthday.
And that is all for today. I can only hope you enjoyed the ride.
Indeed, please forgive the inordinate length of this text. Like Tam Elbrun, a Betazoid first contact specialist and delegate of the United Federation of Planets, maybe I got too involved with my subject, with its story. It happens to me. (Hello, EP and EG!)
Rénald Fortier
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