What is "panhard"

Panhard is a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation, now owned by Renault Trucks Defense, was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA (Peugeot société anonyme) after the 1974 takeover of Citroën by Peugeot, for 40 years. The combined company now uses the Panhard name; this was decided based on studies indicating that the Panhard name had better brand recognition worldwide than the Auverland name. Panhard once built innovative civilian cars but ceased production of those in 1968. Many of its military products however end up on the civilian market via third sources and as military/government surplus vehicles. Panhard also built railbuses between the wars.