This Day in History: GM acquires Chevrolet

On May 2, 1918, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in a calculated move engineered by William C. “Billy” Durant. Durant, who had built GM up by assembling various other automakers into a conglomerate, had been forced out some years before and took his revenge by co-founding Chevrolet with Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss racing star and designer.  The firm prospered, and Durant used it to leverage a GM merger that ended with him in control of the conglomerate.

Photo of Billy Durant and Louis Chevrolet courtesy of GM