De Dion-Bouton - All Models

Company History

De Dion-Bouton stands at the dawn of motorized transport. Founded in the 1880s, the company first built steam vehicles before pivoting to internal combustion under Georges Bouton’s engineering leadership. Its compact, high-revving single-cylinder engines became the world’s most produced powerplants of the 1890s, sold to a wide array of manufacturers and tinkerers, thereby seeding early motorcycle and tricycle industries across Europe and beyond. De Dion-Bouton popularized practical motor tricycles and quadricycles, vehicles that bridged bicycles and cars at a time when roads were muddy and laws were still catching up. The firm’s contributions extended to chassis theory—the De Dion tube axle separated sprung and unsprung masses in a way that influenced automotive suspension for decades. As the 20th century progressed, the company’s focus shifted more squarely to automobiles and engines, and eventually it faded amid consolidation, but the imprint remained. Historically, De Dion-Bouton represents the catalytic effect of a great supplier: by providing reliable, compact engines, it enabled a thousand experiments in personal mobility. In museums and veteran-car rallies today, De Dion-Bouton machines still run—testament to robust design and to an era when engineering advances happened at breathtaking speed. For motorcycling specifically, the company’s engines powered some of the first true motor-bicycles and trikes, making De Dion-Bouton a foundational name in the story of two wheels.