Early Automobile Industry

By chemler

  • First true automobile (Benz)

    Karl Benz creates the first practical gasoline-powered automobile in Germany

  • First four-stroke engine (Cannstatt-Daimler)

    Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach invent the first four-wheeled, four-stroke engine in Germany. It is known as the “Cannstatt-Daimler.”

  • First American gas-powered car (Duryea brothers)

    Brothers Frank and Charles Edgar Duryea invent the first successful gas-powered car in the United States

  • Ford's first automobile (Quadricycle)

    Henry Ford builds the Quadricycle with friends in the shed behind his duplex on Bagley Avenue in Detroit

  • First American car company (Duryea brothers)

    The Duryea brothers start the first American car manufacturing company in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is called Motor Wagons.

  • First Michigan automobile company (Olds Motor Vehicle Co.)

    Ransom E. Olds founds the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing

  • Ford's first company (Detroit Automobile Co.)

    Henry Ford founds the Detroit Automobile Company. It closes three years later.

  • Detroit's first automobile plant (Olds)

    Ransom E. Olds opens the first auto manufacturing plant in Detroit

  • Ford's second company (Henry Ford Co.)

    Ford founds Henry Ford Company, which he will leave a year later. The company will be reorganized and become Cadillac.

  • Ford Motor Company founded

    Ford joins investors, including the Dodge Brothers, to found Ford Motor Company

  • General Motors founded (Mott and Durant)

    Charles Stewart Mott and William Durant found General Motors in Flint, Michigan.

  • First Ford Model T (Ford Piquette Plant)

    Ford rolls out the first Model T from their plant on Piquette Avenue in Detroit