Peugeot is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, two centuries after brothers Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frédéric converted their father’s corn mill to produce everything from tricycles to pepper mills.

Since then Peugeot has been associated with saws, tools, salt and pepper mills, coffee grinders, bicycles, motorcycles, scooters, cars and vans.

From its first bicycles and motorcycles in 1886 and the motor car five years after that, the French car maker’s contribution now includes the first petrol-powered four-wheeler, the first mass-produced diesel-powered saloon and the first electric vehicle as early as 1941.

In that time Peugeot has grown from an annual production rate numbered in dozens into a company that produces several thousand units a day, across an 18 vehicle range.

Peugeot’s plans are still as ambitious, with a new styling direction, a redesigned Lion and no fewer than 14 new models scheduled to launch between now and 2012, including its new Audi TT-rivalling RCZ coupe and fully electric iOn, which will emit no tailpipe CO2.

Full gallery: 200 years of Peugeot

By Rhian Angharad Jones