Peugeot is celebrating the 50,000,000th unit to roll off their production lines since 1891. In little more than a century, the French based Automobiles Peugeot has expanded from humble beginnings to become a global automotive giant.

Today as an innovator, Automobiles Peugeot operates from 24 production sites worldwide and is a world leader in production of low-CO2 emission vehicles. The milestone 50 millionth unit was a new 308 SW, built in France, which will now take pride of place on display in the Peugeot Museum.

In 1891, Armand Peugeot built the first series of Peugeot Type 3 quadricycles, powered by petrol. A pioneer in the world of motor cars, Armand Peugeot set up his company, Societe des Automobiles Peugeot in 1896, and had a new factory built at Audincourt to manufacture his cars.

His cousin Eugene Peugeot was opposed to the venture, seeing the automobile as a frivolous and risky financial investment. Armand therefore was forced to separate the automobiles business from the Family's other divisions including manufacturing of coffee mills, salt and pepper mills, sewing machines, hair clippers, lawn furniture and tools.

The automotive business proved to be very lucrative in the end and by 1925 the 100,000th Peugeot was built. With business booming, factories were built. Such was the success of the 201 that it allowed the company to come through the depression of the 1930s relatively unscathed. By the dawn of the 1970s, Peugeot had produced 500,000 cars to become the second largest French manufacturer.

Peugeot signed an agreement with Renault in 1966 and in 1971, constructed an engine with Volvo. These partnerships paved the way for many more collaborations.

The company joined forces with Fiat in 1981 for the production of light commercial vehicles and people carriers, with Ford in 1998 for the development of diesel engines, with Toyota in 2001 for small engine models and with BMW in 2002 for petrol engines. The latest collaboration in 2008 will see the company build an SUV factory in Russia in conjunction with the Mitsubishi Motor Company. During the course of its history, Automobiles Peugeot has brought to market many innovations, from the first four-cylinder engine on the Type 39 in 1902, to Europe's first turbo-diesel engine in 1979, to the latest 1.6 petrol engine co-developed with BMW, International Engine of the Year 2007 and 2008.

Peugeot invented the world's first Diesel Particulate Emissions Filter (FAP) in 2000, which to date can be found on more than 1.8 million vehicles around the world. Peugeot aims to remain a manufacturer at the cutting edge of technological innovation in the future. From 2010, Peugeot will be producing vehicles equipped with Stop & Start engines on a large scale, as well as introducing vehicles with diesel hybrid technology.

Peugeot has demonstrated its commitment to reducing both greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2001, more than 1,100,000 vehicles emitting less than 120g of CO2/km have been registered by Peugeot in Europe. Last year 4, 40% of private cars registered by Peugeot emitted less than 130 g of CO2/km, making the manufacturer one of the leaders in the field of reduced CO2 emissions. Peugeot intends to develop this environmental position even further and is the only car manufacturer in the world to have a concrete global policy in place regarding CO2.

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