AUTOMOTIVE
NOVEMBER 15, 2021
A Brief Chevrolet Timeline
A brief Chevrolet timeline, about an American car maker that designed popular cars for consumers around the globe.
The founders of Chevrolet Motor Company were William Crapo “Billy” Durant and Swiss racing car driver and engineer, Louis Chevrolet. It was founded on November 3, 1911 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Duran was one of the founders of General Motors in 1908.
The first prototype of Chevrolet car appeared in late 1911 in light gray color and Louis Chevrolet himself tested it on the streets of Detroit at the time.
The first factory location was in Flint, Michigan at the corner of Wilcox and Kearsley Street, now known as Chevy commons across the street from Kettering University.
The Chevrolet logo was designed by Durant in 1913. Chevrolet first used the “bowtie emblem” logo in 1914 on the H series models and the L series model. Recent research shows that the logo is based on a logo of the “Coalettes” coal company.
Louis Chevrolet had differences with Durant over design and in 1914 sold his share to Durant. By 1916 Chevrolet had gained enough profit for Durant to repurchase interest in General Motors. In 1917, Durant became president of General Motors and Chevrolet was merged into GM as a separate division.
During the 1950’s and 1960’s Chevrolet had a great influence on the American automobile market. Chevrolet is mostly known for their commercial vehicles and trucks. The Corvette model is one of the most famous sports cars in the world. It was first introduced in 1953 with a fiberglass body.
In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, the deluxe Chevrolet Impala series became one of the American best selling lines of automobiles in history. During the 1990’s Chevrolet formed a partnership with Toyota and introduced the Geo Prizm, a compact cars that were rebadged versions of the Toyota Sprinter that was derived from the Toyota Corolla.
The Chevrolet division recovered from the economic downturn in 2007 to 2010. In the late 2010, General Motors began to manufacture the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volta. The car was the world’s best selling plug-in electric car in 2012 with 41.400 units sold.
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