Who Invented the Car?

Most people in the United States would tell you that Henry Ford invented the car, but they would be wrong. Henry Ford made his mark on history by making automobiles on a production line faster and better than any of his competitors, but he didn't invent the car.

The car was invented in 1672 in China. Variations and improvements continued until 1885 when the first gasoline powered car was introduced.  Here are the details on some of those early cars and who invented each of them:

• In 1672, an experimentalist and missionary working in China built the first steam driven car ever made. The first self-propelled car was built about a hundred years later in a three-wheel design by Nicholas Cugnot in 1769.
• In 1806 a Swiss inventor designed and built a vehicle that operated on the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen. The combustion reaction occurred within a closed vessel, so it was the first internal combustion engine. It lacked the popularity to be successful.
• In 1881 Gustave Trouve invented a car powered entirely by electricity. This was the first real functioning car based on the principles of locomotion. Trouve put his invention on display in functioning order at the International Exposition of Electricity in 1881.
• Several years later, in 1885, Karl Benz designed and built a gasoline powered car that operated on the principles of internal combustion. The car was built in Germany and later grew into the Mercedes-Benz Corporation. Karl Benz was granted the first patent on a car. 

Thus Karl Benz invented the car as we have known it in the past, using an internal combustion engine. Looking at the needs for the future, though, it is important to note that the inventor of the electric car was Gustave Trouve.