Automobile Types
The high growth in the Indian economy has resulted in many foreign car manufacturers entering the Indian market. Rolls Royce, Bentley and Maybach are examples of the few high end automobile manufacturers to enter India in the recent years.
There were only a few handful of cars in the Indian market in the 1980s. Most of these were outdated models like Hindustan Motors' Ambassador (which is still produced and sold). The only car with the latest technology then was the Maruti 800. It became very popular because of the low price, high fuel efficiency and good reliability. Since then the market has grown with over 20 manufacturers and hundreds of models and variants. The Maruti 800 is at the lower end of the price range costing approx US $5,000 and Bugatti Veyron at the other with a price tag of over 2 Million US dollars.
The Indian automotive industry has also greatly matured. The Tata Indica was indigenously developed by Tata Motors. Another Indian manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra also came up with its own SUVs, the Scorpio and the Bolero. These cars have proved very popular here and are also exported to the European markets. An electric car is also manufactured by a local company, REVA. Tata Motors plans to produce the world's first air powered in partnership with MDI of France.
The passenger vehicle sales in India crossed the one million mark in 2005. This segment grows at 10-15% annually. Around 85% of the cars sold in India are financed as against the global average of 70%. In neighbouring China,only 15-20% vehicles are financed. There are only three cars in India for 1000 people as compared to the other extreme 500 cars for 1000 people in the United States. Goldman Sachs has predicted that India will have the maximum number of cars on the planet by 2050 overtaking the United States.
Production Facilities
BMW
Chennai,Tamil Nadu
Chevrolet
Halol,Gujrat
Fiat
Pune,Maharashtra
Ford
Chennai,Tamil Nadu
Honda
Noida,Uttar Pradesh
Hyundai
Chennai,Tamil Nadu
Mahindra
Nashik,Maharashtra
Mahindra-Renault
Nasik, Mahrashtra & Chennai, Tamilnadu (Under construction)
Mercedes-Benz
Pune,Maharashtra
San
Verna,Goa
Suzuki
Gurgaon,Haryana
Tata
Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh
Pune,Maharashtra
Jamshedpur,Jharkhand
Singur,West Bengal
Toyota
Bangalore,Karnataka
Domestic
Austin
Six (Discontinued)
BMW
BMW is manufacturer of prestigious sport sedans that are known for their nimble handling. BMW enjoys good brand recognition in India,thanks to Indian movies and the rich who have been importing these cars for decades. It has set up a plant in Chennai,Tamil Nadu to manufacture cars locally exclusively for the local market with no plans for export.It set up a plant locally to circumvent the high import duties.
3 Series
5 Series
Chevrolet
Chevrolet has been one of the most recognized brands in India for several decades. They were made popular as the vehicle of choice of the heroes in Bollywood movies. The odel lineup consists of vehicles from cheaper sister brands like Daewoo. General Motors initially entered India with the Opel brand, but the Opel brand was dropped in March 2006 because sales were at an all time low due to high prices and General Motors wanted to focus more on their Chevrolet brand. Since the Chevrolet brand was introduced in India, there have been no new Opel products.
GM's Indian operations were originally a JV between Hindustan Motors and GM, with most of GM's vehicles assembled at Hindustan's plant in Halol, Gujarat. Since then, GM India is now wholly owned by GM.
Cars from Chevrolet are:
Tavera - Rebadged Isuzu Panther
Aveo - Second Generation Chevrolet Aveo sedan
Aveo UV-A - First Generation Chevrolet Aveo hatchback
Forester - (Discontinued) Rebadged First Generation Subaru Forester
Optra - Rebadged Daewoo Lacetti
SRV - Rebadged Daewoo Lacetti
Spark - Formerly Daewoo Matiz in India
Chinkara
Roadster
Jeepster
Daewoo
Cielo (Discontinued)
Matiz (Discontinued, Now re-launched as Chevrolet Spark))
Nexia (Discontinued)
Dodge
Kingsway (Discontinued)
Fiat
Fiat India has struggled in India since its inception. The Fiat Uno was one of the first products to be introduced. The Fiat Palio was later introduced and was initially a big hit with its style and ride comfort coupled with solid build but has slowly lost its sheen due to low fuel efficiency. Other models were introduced such as the Palio Weekend and Siena. Fiat tried re-branding of the Fiat Siena to Fiat Petra without much success. It roped in Sachin Tendulkar as one of its brand ambassadors. Even Michael Schumacher appeared in an ad for the Palio. It has entered now into an alliance with Tata Motors to jointly manufacture cars at its plant in Ranjangaon, near Pune. The facility will enable the two companies to make about 200,000 cars per annum, and also house an engine manufacturing unit with a capacity of 250,000 units per annum. The alliance will also see Tata Motors use Fiat's diesel technology - the 1.3 litre multijet diesel engine - for its own vehicles. The two companies also have a distribution and service partnership.
Uno(Discontinued)
Palio
Palio Stile
Siena(Discontinued)
Siena Weekend (Discontinued)
Petra(Discontinued)
Adventure
Force Motors
Force Motors was formerly known as Bajaj Tempo Ltd. Founded in 1958, it is located in Akurdi, a Pimpri-Chinchwad neighbourhood of Pune, India. They manufacture three wheelers, multi utility and cross country vehicles, light commercial vehicles, tractors and now heavy commercial vehicles.
Gama, Cruiser
Trax, Toofan, Challenger
Ford
Ford entered India in collaboration with Mahindra & Mahindra in 1995 with a major plant in Tamil Nadu. The first model was the Escort.
Escort - It was offered with a 1.3 Liter petrol termed Alpha and 1.5 Liter Diesel engine termed Orion, and at a time when the car wars in India had just begun. The diesel version was fancied by many due to the fact that diesel was available at half the price of petrol(gasoline/gas) in India at that time. Among the famous owners of the Ford Escort was Azim Premji who drove a black one for almost eight years until he traded it for a Toyota Corolla. The Ford Escort 1.8 was ranked the highest in the J.D. Power and Associates 1997 Indian Customer Satisfaction Study. It was also voted the Best Quality Car in the J.D. Power India Initial Quality Study.
Ikon - Was launched to phase out the Escort, known for the Rocam engine, available with a choice of petrol and diesel version, the car did well. Ford is known for launching new versions with some minor cosmetic changes every now and then.
Mondeo (Discontinued) - Was Ford's offering to the D segment in India in 2001, was brought in as a CBU from Belgium with Ghia being the only trim version available. It was available with both 2.0L Duratorq diesel and 142 bhp 2.0L petrol Duratec engines. It was the first car to be offered with Xenon HID headlamps in India. It is alleged that the Mondeo performed better than the 2.3 L Accord available in India at that time. But buyers stayed away as it was more expensive than the Accord. The diesel version was phased out in 2003.
Endeavour - Sold as the Ford Everest in other parts of Asia and based on the Ranger pickup, it was offered in both 4X4 and 4X2 options but with only a 2.5 L, 4 Cylinder In-line, Turbocharged & Inter cooled Diesel Engine and manual transmission.
Fusion - was launched as a Urban Activity Vehicle available with a 1.6 L , 4 cyl 101 bhp engine with 5 speed manual transmission.
Fiesta - Launched in November 2005 and was Ford's fifth model in India, and is available in 1.6 L petrol and 1.4 L diesel engines. Bill Ford made a personal visit to launch the car in India.
Hindustan Motors
Hindustan Motors is one of the oldest Indian car manufacturers. It is best known for the Ambassador which has been virtually unchanged for about 30 years. It is still very popular as a taxi and is widely used by Indian politicians. Many people have come to associate India with Ambassador and is a prominent part of the Indian landscape.
Trekker (Discontinued)
Landmaster (Discontinued)
Contessa (Discontinued) - 5th Generation Vauxhall Victor
Ambassador - a version of the 1950s Morris Oxford.
Honda
Honda Siel Cars entered India in 1995. It sells 4 cars in India - the City, Civic, Accord, and CR-V. The manufacturing plant of Honda Siel is located in Greater Noida. The model of Accord sold in India is the 2003 model. The most inexpensive car from Honda - The City. The most Expensive - The Honda Accord V6.
Accord - It was introduced in India in July 2001. It is sold in three versions - Accord VTi-L M/T, Accord VTi-L A/T and Accord V6 A/T. Both the engines, the standard i-4 and V-6 have be de-tuned which produce less power compared to the American models, the I-4 produces 142 bhp while the V6 produces 221 bhp, de-tuned for better fuel efficiency.
City - Was launched in India in December 1997 ,initially offered in two options. A 1.3 liter engine producing 90 bhp and a bigger 1.5 liter producing 100 bhp. Two years later a VTEC option was also offered. All were four cylinder engines. In October 2003 the City underwent a major revamp and is popularly called as New Honda City (NHC). Surprisingly Honda gave the new City less powerful engines and decided to improve the fuel efficiency. The new City features a 1.5 liter engine producing 77 bhp. It offered more interior space and with bright and refreshing interiors. About two years later, a face lifted version - CITY ZX - was introduced. At the same time, a VTEC engine model too was introduced.
Civic - Was launched in July 2006 in India 6 months after the international debut. The car is the first in this segment in India to offer unprecedented safety features like ABS, EBD as standard. It is also the first in its class to feature reverse swing windshield wipers. The only problem with the car with respect to India is its low ground clearance.
CR-V - It was introduced in India along with the Accord. It was and is still offered with a 2.4 liter i-VTEC engine producing 152 bhp.
Hyundai
When Hyundai entered India, the brand was virtually unknown in the Indian market. They signed up Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and their excellent advertising campaign made Hyundai a household name and helped it reach the second place behind market leader Maruti Suzuki.
Santro - second generation Hyundai Atos
Accent - second generation Hyundai Accent sedan
Sonata - sold as the Sonata Embera
Verna - third generation Hyundai Accent sedan
Getz - sold as the Getz Prime
Elantra - 3rd generation Hyundai Elantra sedan
Terracan (discontinued)
Tucson
International Cars & Motors
Rhino
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited
The automotive section of Mahindra started off when a first batch of seventy five Utility Vehicles (UVs) was imported in CKD condition from Willys in 1947. It has come a long way, not just manufacturing Jeeps but also agricultural equipment and light trucks.
Armada (Discontinued)
Voyager Discontinued)
Bolero
Commander
CL
MaXX
Scorpio
Mahindra and Mahindra Classic This was an open jeep with good off roading capabilities, a 4*4 and 4*2 option, huge headlamps and roof mounted lights.
Renault
Logan
Mercedes-Benz
M-Class
S-Class
E-Class
C-Class
Mercedes-Benz has had to cater to the ever growning luxury segment in India, in a much better fashion now, especially after the arrival of the other luxury german manufacturers. Now, Mercedes-Benz cars are launched in India soon after the worldwide launch and homologation as opposed to earlier, when Mercedes-Benz had monopolized the niche Indian market.
Mitsubishi Motors
Lancer - Sixth Generation Mitsubishi Lancer
Cedia - Seventh Generation Mitsubishi Lancer
Pajero - Second Generation Mitsubishi Pajero
Montero - Third Generation Mitsubishi Pajero
Opel
General Motors' Opel no longer functions in India after its Corsa's production stopped in March 2006. GM is instead focusing on its Chevrolet brand for the Indian market.
Corsa (Discontinued) - 2nd Generation Opel Corsa
Corsa Sail (Discontinued) - 2nd Generation Opel Corsa
Corsa Swing (Discontinued) - 2nd Generation Opel Corsa
Vectra(Discontinued) - 3rd Generation Opel Vectra
Astra(Discontinued) - 1st Generation Opel Astra
Plymouth
Savoy (Discontinued)
Premier Automobiles
Walchand Hirachand started Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL) in 1942. They were the first to kick off the automobile revolution in India by assembling De Soto and Plymouth cars in 1946 in association with Chrysler from the United States. They also manufactured the famed Premier Padmini which was a version of the Fiat 1100.
Padmini (Discontinued)
118 NE (Discontinued)
Premier Sigma
Peugeot
Tied up with Premier Automobiles Ltd to manufacture the Peugeot 309. The car was popular but labour problems resulted in it being discontinued and PAL's relation with Peugeot turned sour. After which there was no car launched from the joint venture. Even the existing owners find it difficult to find spares.
309 (Discontinued)
Renault (Mahindra Renault)
Logan
REVA
REVA
Rover
Montego (Discontinued)
San
Storm
Sipani
Badal (Discontinued)
Badal 4 (Discontinued)
Dolphin (Discontinued) - a version of the Reliant Kitten, a Reliant Robin with 4 wheels and Triumph inspired front suspension.
Montana (Discontinued)
Montana D1 (Discontinued)
Škoda
Škoda is an important car manufacturer of India. It recently launched the Laura, the Octavia still continues to exist. Skoda also offers the Superb in India but it's not too popular.
Octavia
Superb
Laura
Standard Motors
Standard Vanguard (Discontinued)
Standard 8 (Discontinued)
Standard 10 (Discontinued)
Standard Penant (Discontinued)
Triumph Herald (Discontinued)
Standard Gazel (Discontinued)
Standard 2000 (Discontinued) - Rebadged Rover SD1
Maruti Suzuki
Maruti Udyog was formed as a partnership between the Government of India and Suzuki of Japan. It brought India its first "affordable" car, the Maruti 800. It is the biggest car manufacturer in India and especially dominant in the small car sector. After the Maruti 800, it launched the Maruti 1000, followed by the Maruti Esteem the European version of the Suzuki Swift . With the launch of Cielo from DCM Daewoo, Maruti decided to up the game and launched the Maruti Esteem VX, it was followed by the AX version but was dropped later on due to poor sales. Maruti once had a market share of approximately eighty percent, but facing competition with companies like Tata, Hyundai etc. Maruti Udyog's market share has dropped to around forty percent. According to AutoCar India, the only Maruti Suzuki car worth buying is the new Maruti Swift. Maruti Zen's production stopped because of the success of Swift, but it has been revived as the Zen Estilo.
800
Omni
1000 (Discontinued)
Maruti Zen (Discontinued, but revived and re-branded as the Zen Estilo)
Alto
Esteem
Baleno - (Discontinued)
Baleno Altutra - (Discontinued)
Gypsy
Swift
SX4
WagonR
Versa
Zen Estilo - First Generation Suzuki MR Wagon
Grand Vitara - First Generation Suzuki Grand Vitara
Tata Motors
Tata Motors, also known as Telco is the third largest car producer in India after Maruti and Hyundai. It was responsible for developing India's first indigenous vehicle, the Indica. It has proved to be a success in the market after initial quality problems. The company also exports the car to many countries.Tata Motors also has an interest in the commercial vehicle segment of which it controls around 70%.
Estate(Discontinued)
Sierra (Discontinued)
Sumo
Safari
Indica
Indigo
Indigo Marina
TL
Toyota
Toyota Kirloskar sells 4 car models in India. It stopped producing the Toyota Qualis to make way for the Toyota Innova, which was launched in India in 2005. The most expensive car from Toyota is a very powerful SUV - The Land Cruiser Prado. Toyota Kirloskar Motors LTD is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and the Kirloskar Group.
Qualis (Discontinued) - 3rd Generation Toyota Kijang
Camry - 6th Generation Toyota Camry
Corolla - 9th Generation Toyota Corolla
Innova
Land Cruiser Prado - 3rd Generation Toyota Prado
Imports
Audi
Audi A4
Audi A6
Audi A8
Audi TT
Audi Q7
BMW
BMW 7-Series
BMW X5
BMW X3
[edit] Land Rover
Range Rover
Range Rover Sport
Mercedes-Benz (Daimler Chrysler)
CLS-Class
SL-Class
S-Class
SLK Class
Nissan
Teana
X-Trail
Porsche
911
Boxster
Cayenne
Cayman
Rolls Royce
Rolls Royce is perhaps the most respected and prestigious car in automotive history and it is available in India at a price tag of Rs.35,000,000.
Rolls Royce Phantom
Volvo
Volvo XC90
Monday, April 27, 2009
THE ORIGIN OF THE AUTOMOBILE
When was the first automobile built? Daimler and Benz are traditionally credited with building the first cars in 1886, but the French claim it was first built in 1884 by Delamare-Deboutteville. Still others claim it was built in 1860. It all depends on your definition of a car.
Contrary to popular belief, Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. He wasn't even close. What Ford did was perfect the assembly line technique, well after the turn of the century. This allowed him to lower the cost of the automobile drastically, bringing a rich man's plaything within reach of the masses, thereby changing Western society. Reason enough to be famous.
In 1860 a Frenchman, Edouard Delamare-Debouteville, did some experiments and filed some patents for a self-propelled car. In 1884 France built the world's first car. However the first self-propelled automobile existed long before 1884.
Steam-powered stage coaches were in regular service between many towns in Britain from 1820 to 1840. They were built by such men as Goldsworthy Gurney, Walter Hancock, Ogle & Summers, Squire & Macerone, John Scott Russell and others.
Charles Dietz and his sons ran steam-driven road tractors hauling passenger carriages on routes around Paris and Bordeaux prior to 1850. And in America, steam coaches were built in the 1860 to '80 period by Harrison Dyer of Boston, Joseph Dixon of Lynn, Mass., Rufus Porter of Hartford, Conn., and William T. James of New York City.
Amedee Bollee Sr. was the most remarkable of the steam-car pioneers. Heir to a bell foundry at Le Mans, he added mechanical workshops and built a series of advanced-design vehicles from 1873 to 1883. There was nothing particularly new or refined in his steam power systems, but his sense of vehicle architecture was superb. La Mancelle, built in 1878, had a front-mounted engine, shaft drive to the differential, chain drive to the rear wheels, steering wheel on a vertical shaft and driver's seat behind the engine. The boiler was carried behind the passenger compartment. Bollee built a series of steam carriages with romantic names like Rapide and L'Obeissante (the Obedient One). His sons, Amedee Jr. and Leon, both became makers of gasoline-powered cars. Amedee Sr. also invented an independent front-wheel suspension system with upper and lower transverse leaf springs in 1878.
Use of steam power for road vehicles can be traced back to 1769, when a French artillery engineer, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, constructed a three-wheeled military tractor at the Paris Arsenal. It ran at a speed of 2 1/2 mph, but it was nearly uncontrollable and crashed into a stone wall during a demonstration.
Was this the birth of the car? It depends. The Cugnot vehicle can be regarded as the first automobile in the world, if the definition is broad enough. How should it be defined? By fuel, type of engine, drive system, seating capacity, speed or what?
When Daimler-Benz (makers of Mercedes-Benz cars) says that the automobile was invented in 1886 by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, it's basing its claim on its own definition: a light carriage for personal transport with three or four wheels, powered by a liquid-fueled internal combustion engine. In doing so, the company ignores Daimler's gas-powered motorcycle of 1885
But even by that definition, the French have a prior claim: Belgian-born Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, who settled in Paris and became a naturalized French citizen, invented his gas engine in 1858 and patented it in 1860. He used electric spark ignition, but the engine ran on stove gas and had no compression. It was shown to the press in a three-wheeled cart in 1860. A liquid-fuel version, with a primitive carburetor, was built in 1862 and installed in a three-wheeled wagon early in 1863. It is on record that it successfully covered the 18 kilometres from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back, securing its place in history as the first spark-ignition petroleum-fuel car to demonstrate its roadworthiness.
But Lenoir did not continue his work on cars. So we (and Daimler-Benz) can make the Lenoir claim void by narrowing the definition further: It doesn't count as a car if you gave up. You must persevere, and your experiments must lead to actual car production. That's what Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler did. Or did they?
From the experimental cars of Daimler and Benz it was indeed a short step to industrial production -- but not in Germany. Daimler-Benz concedes that the first car manufacturers in the world were French -- Panhard & Levassor in 1889, followed by Peugeot in 1891. Since both were buying their engines from Daimler when production began, vital participation by the motor makers of Germany is implicit. At that time, Daimler was more interested in royalties and licensing fees for his engines than he was in actually building cars.
The French companies made each new car a little bit different from its predecessor for years. The first true production model was the Benz Velo of 1894. Benz built 134 cars to the exact same specification during 1895.
In the meantime, the French had invented motor racing: The Parisian daily newspaper Le Petit Journal sponsored a run from Paris. to Rouen in 1894. The following year, a group of wealthy enthusiasts founded the Automobile Club de France, the first of its kind.
Daimler and Benz did not work in a vacuum; they were aware of many experiments going on at the time:
Alphonse Beau de Rochas was a self-taught civil engineer working in a laboratory in Paris. In 1861, he was the first to spell out the sequence of the four-stroke cycle and provide a theoretical pressure diagram -- but he never built an engine. He received French patent No. 52,593, dated Jan. 16, 1862.
Nikolaus August Otto was a merchant who dropped out of business to experiment with gas engines at the age of 22. He had an atmospheric gas engine running in Cologne in 1862 and began production, selling about 50 units a year. Realizing the value of compression, he also invented charge-stratification. His first experimental four-stroke engine ran in 1876, and his patent (No. 532) is dated Aug. 4, 1877. His small shop grew into Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz, where Gottlieb Daimler later worked as chief engineer.
Siegfried Marcus was a prolific inventor living in Vienna. He had a four-stroke engine running in 1870, using some sort of petroleum fuel and a 2-foot-high carburetor. Between 1870 and 1875, he is reported to have installed such an engine in a small wagon converted into a cart by removing the rear axle. The flywheel was its rear wheel. A four-wheeled Marcus vehicle is thought to date from 1875. The Marcus vehicle in the Vienna Technical Museum is dated 1888, but conforms to descriptions of the 1875 vehicle.
George Brayton of Boston, Mass., developed an engine with pre-compression, running on light petroleum fuel, in 1874 and it is considered the first safe and practical oil engine made. But for compression of the charge, it needed two outside pumping cylinders.
George B. Selden, a shrewd patent attorney from Rochester, N.Y., filed a patent for a "road engine" in 1879. Under the liberal patent laws of the time, he was allowed to back date his patent to 1877 and to amend and expand it frequently. When it was finally issued in 1895 it covered a front-drive, three-cylinder carriage with a transverse engine. Although he had never built a car, Selden used his patents to extract royalties from early American manufacturers on every auto they built.
When Henry Ford refused to pay royalties, a famous court suit followed. During the long trial, the owners of Selden's patent were finally forced to build a vehicle in 1904. Essential details in Selden's patents had been left deliberately vague, and the car built in 1904 had much benefit from then-current technology. Despite all these loopholes, the "1877" Selden barely ran. The patent was finally shot down in 1911.
Those are uncontested facts. The trouble is that now the French want the world to believe it was Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville who invented the automobile, in 1884.
Deboutteville was 22 years old when he went to work in his brother's textile plant just outside Rouen. A year later, in 1879, he invented a universal machine capable of cutting, milling, drilling and turning. He became interested in the internal combustion engine primarily as a source of power to run the machinery in factories, and secondarily for propelling road vehicles. He was aware of the patents of Beau de Rochas and Lenoir, and also knew of Otto's patent.
His first engine was a single-cylinder four-stroke unit, built early in 1883. It ran on stove gas, but Deboutteville had also created a carburetor for running on liquid (petroleum) fuels. The outstanding things about his engine were:
Coil-and-battery ignition, with a sparkplug.
Mechanically operated overhead intake and exhaust valves.
High compression ratio.
This engine was put in a three-wheeled vehicle that was destroyed in an accident. Undaunted, Deboutteville built a four-wheeled car with a two-cylinder engine. This design figures in the 1884 patent. The vehicle was a modified horse-drawn wagon, but the new engine was noteworthy for its:
Pistons with rings
Provision for air- or water-heating of the carburetor
Air- or water-cooling of the cylinders
Speed control on the intake manifold
Exhaust muffler
Progressive clutch
It is certain that the car was built, but the evidence that it ever ran is weak. You'll look in vain for any mention of a test drive in local newspapers. Deboutteville's patent went unnoticed. It was never exploited at all.
A great pity, for Deboutteville's proposed car was extremely well thought out. He had solutions to all the basic problems, but he had to give up his experiments to concentrate on making a living. Instead of developing the car, he removed its engine and put it to use in the factory. He became a manufacturer of industrial engines, but had nothing more to do with automobiles.
Both Daimler and Benz could have gained by reading the 1884 patent, for their first vehicles were very primitive in several regards. Daimler's engine from 1885 was a vertical single-cylinder of 462-cc displacement, delivering 1.1 hp at 650 rpm. It had a suction-operated intake valve and hot-tube ignition. It had an evaporative "surface" carburetor, and the speed control was a butterfly valve mounted on the exhaust pipe. He did not design a car for it, but installed it in a horse carriage with a centrally pivoted front axle. And it did not run in 1886. The first test drive took place on Mar. 4, 1887.
Karl Benz spent many years developing the two-stroke engine before turning his attention to the four-stroke cycle in 1885. He put a slide valve on the intake port and fired its sparkplug from a high-tension coil. The mixture was produced in a surface carburetor, and he put a speed governor on the intake side. The single-cylinder Benz engine had 954-cc displacement and delivered 0.67 hp at 250 rpm.
The "car" Benz designed around the engine was a light three-wheeler with belt drive, which first ran on the streets of Mannheim in June 1886. Benz did not build a four-wheeled car until 1891. It was only after seeing the success of Peugeot and Panhard & Levassor that Daimler and his assistant, Wilhelm Maybach, began to think in terms of complete cars rather than just engines.
Was the automobile invented in France or Germany? The argument may never be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. One thing to bear in mind is that the car is not one invention but a mechanical creation composed of hundreds, if not thousands, of inventions. In truth, we are still inventing the car, for the car is an ever-changing assembly of ideas, systems and parts. In the past 100 years, the French contribution to its advance has been as significant as that of the Germans.
Contrary to popular belief, Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. He wasn't even close. What Ford did was perfect the assembly line technique, well after the turn of the century. This allowed him to lower the cost of the automobile drastically, bringing a rich man's plaything within reach of the masses, thereby changing Western society. Reason enough to be famous.
In 1860 a Frenchman, Edouard Delamare-Debouteville, did some experiments and filed some patents for a self-propelled car. In 1884 France built the world's first car. However the first self-propelled automobile existed long before 1884.
Steam-powered stage coaches were in regular service between many towns in Britain from 1820 to 1840. They were built by such men as Goldsworthy Gurney, Walter Hancock, Ogle & Summers, Squire & Macerone, John Scott Russell and others.
Charles Dietz and his sons ran steam-driven road tractors hauling passenger carriages on routes around Paris and Bordeaux prior to 1850. And in America, steam coaches were built in the 1860 to '80 period by Harrison Dyer of Boston, Joseph Dixon of Lynn, Mass., Rufus Porter of Hartford, Conn., and William T. James of New York City.
Amedee Bollee Sr. was the most remarkable of the steam-car pioneers. Heir to a bell foundry at Le Mans, he added mechanical workshops and built a series of advanced-design vehicles from 1873 to 1883. There was nothing particularly new or refined in his steam power systems, but his sense of vehicle architecture was superb. La Mancelle, built in 1878, had a front-mounted engine, shaft drive to the differential, chain drive to the rear wheels, steering wheel on a vertical shaft and driver's seat behind the engine. The boiler was carried behind the passenger compartment. Bollee built a series of steam carriages with romantic names like Rapide and L'Obeissante (the Obedient One). His sons, Amedee Jr. and Leon, both became makers of gasoline-powered cars. Amedee Sr. also invented an independent front-wheel suspension system with upper and lower transverse leaf springs in 1878.
Use of steam power for road vehicles can be traced back to 1769, when a French artillery engineer, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, constructed a three-wheeled military tractor at the Paris Arsenal. It ran at a speed of 2 1/2 mph, but it was nearly uncontrollable and crashed into a stone wall during a demonstration.
Was this the birth of the car? It depends. The Cugnot vehicle can be regarded as the first automobile in the world, if the definition is broad enough. How should it be defined? By fuel, type of engine, drive system, seating capacity, speed or what?
When Daimler-Benz (makers of Mercedes-Benz cars) says that the automobile was invented in 1886 by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, it's basing its claim on its own definition: a light carriage for personal transport with three or four wheels, powered by a liquid-fueled internal combustion engine. In doing so, the company ignores Daimler's gas-powered motorcycle of 1885
But even by that definition, the French have a prior claim: Belgian-born Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir, who settled in Paris and became a naturalized French citizen, invented his gas engine in 1858 and patented it in 1860. He used electric spark ignition, but the engine ran on stove gas and had no compression. It was shown to the press in a three-wheeled cart in 1860. A liquid-fuel version, with a primitive carburetor, was built in 1862 and installed in a three-wheeled wagon early in 1863. It is on record that it successfully covered the 18 kilometres from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back, securing its place in history as the first spark-ignition petroleum-fuel car to demonstrate its roadworthiness.
But Lenoir did not continue his work on cars. So we (and Daimler-Benz) can make the Lenoir claim void by narrowing the definition further: It doesn't count as a car if you gave up. You must persevere, and your experiments must lead to actual car production. That's what Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler did. Or did they?
From the experimental cars of Daimler and Benz it was indeed a short step to industrial production -- but not in Germany. Daimler-Benz concedes that the first car manufacturers in the world were French -- Panhard & Levassor in 1889, followed by Peugeot in 1891. Since both were buying their engines from Daimler when production began, vital participation by the motor makers of Germany is implicit. At that time, Daimler was more interested in royalties and licensing fees for his engines than he was in actually building cars.
The French companies made each new car a little bit different from its predecessor for years. The first true production model was the Benz Velo of 1894. Benz built 134 cars to the exact same specification during 1895.
In the meantime, the French had invented motor racing: The Parisian daily newspaper Le Petit Journal sponsored a run from Paris. to Rouen in 1894. The following year, a group of wealthy enthusiasts founded the Automobile Club de France, the first of its kind.
Daimler and Benz did not work in a vacuum; they were aware of many experiments going on at the time:
Alphonse Beau de Rochas was a self-taught civil engineer working in a laboratory in Paris. In 1861, he was the first to spell out the sequence of the four-stroke cycle and provide a theoretical pressure diagram -- but he never built an engine. He received French patent No. 52,593, dated Jan. 16, 1862.
Nikolaus August Otto was a merchant who dropped out of business to experiment with gas engines at the age of 22. He had an atmospheric gas engine running in Cologne in 1862 and began production, selling about 50 units a year. Realizing the value of compression, he also invented charge-stratification. His first experimental four-stroke engine ran in 1876, and his patent (No. 532) is dated Aug. 4, 1877. His small shop grew into Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz, where Gottlieb Daimler later worked as chief engineer.
Siegfried Marcus was a prolific inventor living in Vienna. He had a four-stroke engine running in 1870, using some sort of petroleum fuel and a 2-foot-high carburetor. Between 1870 and 1875, he is reported to have installed such an engine in a small wagon converted into a cart by removing the rear axle. The flywheel was its rear wheel. A four-wheeled Marcus vehicle is thought to date from 1875. The Marcus vehicle in the Vienna Technical Museum is dated 1888, but conforms to descriptions of the 1875 vehicle.
George Brayton of Boston, Mass., developed an engine with pre-compression, running on light petroleum fuel, in 1874 and it is considered the first safe and practical oil engine made. But for compression of the charge, it needed two outside pumping cylinders.
George B. Selden, a shrewd patent attorney from Rochester, N.Y., filed a patent for a "road engine" in 1879. Under the liberal patent laws of the time, he was allowed to back date his patent to 1877 and to amend and expand it frequently. When it was finally issued in 1895 it covered a front-drive, three-cylinder carriage with a transverse engine. Although he had never built a car, Selden used his patents to extract royalties from early American manufacturers on every auto they built.
When Henry Ford refused to pay royalties, a famous court suit followed. During the long trial, the owners of Selden's patent were finally forced to build a vehicle in 1904. Essential details in Selden's patents had been left deliberately vague, and the car built in 1904 had much benefit from then-current technology. Despite all these loopholes, the "1877" Selden barely ran. The patent was finally shot down in 1911.
Those are uncontested facts. The trouble is that now the French want the world to believe it was Edouard Delamare-Deboutteville who invented the automobile, in 1884.
Deboutteville was 22 years old when he went to work in his brother's textile plant just outside Rouen. A year later, in 1879, he invented a universal machine capable of cutting, milling, drilling and turning. He became interested in the internal combustion engine primarily as a source of power to run the machinery in factories, and secondarily for propelling road vehicles. He was aware of the patents of Beau de Rochas and Lenoir, and also knew of Otto's patent.
His first engine was a single-cylinder four-stroke unit, built early in 1883. It ran on stove gas, but Deboutteville had also created a carburetor for running on liquid (petroleum) fuels. The outstanding things about his engine were:
Coil-and-battery ignition, with a sparkplug.
Mechanically operated overhead intake and exhaust valves.
High compression ratio.
This engine was put in a three-wheeled vehicle that was destroyed in an accident. Undaunted, Deboutteville built a four-wheeled car with a two-cylinder engine. This design figures in the 1884 patent. The vehicle was a modified horse-drawn wagon, but the new engine was noteworthy for its:
Pistons with rings
Provision for air- or water-heating of the carburetor
Air- or water-cooling of the cylinders
Speed control on the intake manifold
Exhaust muffler
Progressive clutch
It is certain that the car was built, but the evidence that it ever ran is weak. You'll look in vain for any mention of a test drive in local newspapers. Deboutteville's patent went unnoticed. It was never exploited at all.
A great pity, for Deboutteville's proposed car was extremely well thought out. He had solutions to all the basic problems, but he had to give up his experiments to concentrate on making a living. Instead of developing the car, he removed its engine and put it to use in the factory. He became a manufacturer of industrial engines, but had nothing more to do with automobiles.
Both Daimler and Benz could have gained by reading the 1884 patent, for their first vehicles were very primitive in several regards. Daimler's engine from 1885 was a vertical single-cylinder of 462-cc displacement, delivering 1.1 hp at 650 rpm. It had a suction-operated intake valve and hot-tube ignition. It had an evaporative "surface" carburetor, and the speed control was a butterfly valve mounted on the exhaust pipe. He did not design a car for it, but installed it in a horse carriage with a centrally pivoted front axle. And it did not run in 1886. The first test drive took place on Mar. 4, 1887.
Karl Benz spent many years developing the two-stroke engine before turning his attention to the four-stroke cycle in 1885. He put a slide valve on the intake port and fired its sparkplug from a high-tension coil. The mixture was produced in a surface carburetor, and he put a speed governor on the intake side. The single-cylinder Benz engine had 954-cc displacement and delivered 0.67 hp at 250 rpm.
The "car" Benz designed around the engine was a light three-wheeler with belt drive, which first ran on the streets of Mannheim in June 1886. Benz did not build a four-wheeled car until 1891. It was only after seeing the success of Peugeot and Panhard & Levassor that Daimler and his assistant, Wilhelm Maybach, began to think in terms of complete cars rather than just engines.
Was the automobile invented in France or Germany? The argument may never be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides. One thing to bear in mind is that the car is not one invention but a mechanical creation composed of hundreds, if not thousands, of inventions. In truth, we are still inventing the car, for the car is an ever-changing assembly of ideas, systems and parts. In the past 100 years, the French contribution to its advance has been as significant as that of the Germans.
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