Electricity-powered Vehicles
From 1832 to 1839, Scottish inventor Robert Andersondesigned a more practical vehicle that used a battery topower a small motor. This was hailed as a breakthrough,even though this vehicle was still very slow and oftenneeded to stop for a recharge. But the idea of electricity-powered vehicles did catch on. Streetcars and tramsused electricity for power and became the most populartransportation mode of choice in Europe and the U.S. inthe mid 1800s.
Gasoline-powered Vehicles
It was the invention of the gasoline-powered enginethat really brought a reliable and workable automobile tothe world. Gasoline-powered engines were not new; someof the first designs could be dated back to the late 1700s.Some inventors attempted to make a wagon or a carriagerun by a motor, but with moderate success.
In 1885, Karl Benz built the first three-wheeledgasoline-powered car in Germany. In the following year, themilestone vehicle was built by Gottlieb Daimler, anotherGerman. He perfected the two-cylinder gasoline engine andattached it to a stagecoach, thereby producing the first four-wheeled motor vehicle in the world. And then, engineersand designers went on with refining and shaping the engineand vehicle designs. By the early 1900s, motor-poweredvehicles had become more popular than any other type ofvehicles.
The First Vehicle Workshop
In 1889, former woodworkers Rene Panhard andEmile Levassor in France set up the first workshop thatbuilt complete motor vehicles. They made each new car alittle bit different from its predecessors for years. Cars wererefined during processing. Improvements included movingthe engine to the front of the vehicle and designing a rear-wheel drive for better control of the vehicle.
