Hotchkiss Gazogène

Gas powered cars are a French invention and date back to the 1920s, when car manufacturer Marius Berliet began building commercial vehicles that ran on wood gas.

Gas powered cars are a French invention and date back to the 1920s, when car manufacturer Marius Berliet began building commercial vehicles that ran on wood gas. Manufacturers such as Renault and Panhard & Levassor soon followed. Charcoal served as the basis for the gas, which was produced in a gas generator. During the German occupation it was virtually impossible for civilians to obtain gasoline, and the wood gas generator, or gazogene, turned out to be the solution. In 1941 around fifty thousand cars in France were driving around with gas generators, such as this converted Hotchkiss delivery van. Because this consumed about 150,000 tons of wood per year and thus threatened deforestation, the Germans banned further production of gas generators. Not only was this a new way to restrict civilian mobility, the occupier also used it as an excuse to confiscate more cars.