While sales may not have been considered high under normal market conditions, Breguet sold nearly 200 A2s. To put the price into some perspective, the Breguet A2 cost more than the half the price of much larger and more luxurious Citroen Traction Avant, however you could not drive the Citroen because you couldn’t buy petrol for it.

The Citroen Traction Avant offered much more car for about twice the money as the Breguet A2 (photo courtesy Wikipedia)

Also, it is very likely that getting the raw materials to make the car would have been a major challenge by itself, especially later on in the war, when the Nazis were fighting both the Russians and the Allied Forces and all their resources were dedicated to this.

Streamlined back of the Breguet A2 (photo courtesy Kuil Banden)

Today the A2 is one of the world’s rarest cars with only four confirmed survivors. Three are owned by descendants of the Breguet family; one of these was auctioned earlier this year by Artcurial.

This car was in remarkable condition with only one repaint and reupholstered seats during its lifetime. In fact, in the 1990s it was still being driven by its previous owner before it went into storage. The Breguet A2 was sold at this auction for €41,720.

Breguet A2 electric car from 1942

Despite its venture into car manufacturing for this short period, Breguet Aviation continued successfully making aircraft as soon as the war was over. The last new model that introduced under the Breguet name was the Atlantique, a long-range maritime patrol aircraft from 1961. The Atlantique remained in production until 1985, even though the company had merged with Dassault in 1971.

Breguet Aviation/Dassault ‘Atlantique’ from 1991 (photo courtesy Wikipedia)

This merger meant that in 1990 the grand name of one of the world’s foremost aviation pioneers, and an occasional car manufacturer, was retired from use in its industry.

Original battery charger for the Breguet A2 (photo courtesy Martin Green)