“The prophecy of Paul Magès”: PSA's Hybrid Air as seen by Le Progrès de Lyon (2013)

In this document

The article, signed by Jérémy Laugier for the RHO edition of Le Progrès de Lyon, announces the presentation by PSA of the Hybrid Air technology at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, on a Citroën C3 and a Peugeot 2008 p. 1.

The principle and the figures announced

The journalist points out that PSA's gamble relies on compressed air rather than electricity: according to Karim Mokaddem, Hybrid Air project manager, “in the city, we recover energy from 85% of braking and deceleration situations very quickly” p. 1.

The article specifies that around a hundred engineers worked for more than two years on four generations of prototypes, with commercialisation targeted for 2016 and initial tests before 2014 p. 1. A drawback is noted: the system “will never be silent with the current components coming from the aeronautics industry” p. 1.

The “prophecy” of Paul Magès

The text explicitly links this innovation to Paul Magès: it recalls that Citroën engineers had envisaged the coupling of hydraulics and compressed air on the 2 CV as early as 1958, but that Magès had noted the lack of a market and the need to improve the components, writing at the time: “Perhaps one day…” p. 1.

Context

Paul Magès (1908-1999) was the self-taught engineer who joined Citroën in August 1925, where from the 1940s he led the work that resulted in the hydropneumatic suspension (plans of 17 February 1944, first 2 CV tests in 1946), made famous by the DS presented on 6 October 1955. The idea of combining compressed air and a hydraulic circuit for propulsion, mentioned here for 1958, is in line with these studies on fluids under pressure conducted until his retirement from Citroën in September 1974 (photographs of his departure) and his death in 1999 (tribute from the mayor of Ramatuelle).

The Hybrid Air technology, presented by PSA in 2013, is part of the broader context of the race for automotive hybridisation initiated by manufacturers such as Toyota (Yaris Hybrid, cited in the article), at a time when the hybrid market remained marginal in France.

Archivist's perspective

This press clipping is not a document produced by Magès himself, but a 2013 journalistic article that invokes him a posteriori as a founding figure: it seems that the journalist wanted to place Hybrid Air in a direct lineage with the hydropneumatic work initiated in 1958 at Citroën p. 1.

The main interest of the piece lies in this quote attributed to Magès — “Perhaps one day…” — which, if authentic, testifies to the engineer's anticipatory vision regarding the technological limits of his time p. 1. The document deserves to be compared with Magès' original technical archives on air/hydraulic coupling, if they exist in the collection, to verify the exact content of this anticipation.

The handwritten highlighter annotation on the first paragraph suggests that this passage — precisely the one mentioning Magès — caught the attention of a reader, probably in connection with the promotion of the engineer's legacy, as perpetuated today by his family and the Association Paul Magès.