- 0 - Automotive Industry History - 1 - Who invented the automobile Assumptions concerning the answer to this question differ widely throughout the world: In England: many people will tell you that the car was invented by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce In America: In the USA, George Selden (1846-1922) claimed that he was the inventor of the automobile. This son of a patent attorney had filed a patent application for a motor vehicle in 1879. He was granted the patent in 1895 without ever having built an automobile. Selden bombarded American car manufacturers with demands for license fees. It was not until 1911, following protracted litigation, that Henry Ford succeeded in overturning the mysterious Selden patent. Today, most Americans believe that Henry Ford invented the car. In Austria: even highly respected historians believed for a long time that the Viennese Siegfried Marcus (1831-1890) built the first car in 1865 when he fitted a stationary engine to a cart and took it for a 200 meter test run. In France: The widely held French view is that it was Count de Dion and Georges Bouton who invented the car. In 1771, France’s Nicolas Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804) designed and built a vehicle which was later declared to be the first automobile in the world. It was a monstrous steam-powered affair which is said to have caused a road accident during a test run. In 1801, it was taken to the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. - 2 - The first automobile in the world Year built: 1771 Name: Le Fardier Inventor: Joseph Nicolas Cugnot, France Technology: 2 vertical cylinder steam engine Cylinders volume: 62 liters Max speed: 4 km/h (~2.5 mph) Where is it now Musée National des Techniques du C.N.A.M. - Paris - 3 - 1950 1970 1990 2000 1) General Motors General Motors General Motors General Motors 2) Ford Ford Ford Ford 3) Chrysler Chrysler Toyota Volkswagen 4) Studebaker Volkswagen Nissan Toyota 5) Nash Fiat Volkswagen Daimler-Chrysler 6) Kaiser-Frazer Toyota Fiat Nissan 7) Morris Nissan Honda Honda 8) Hudson Renault PSA Fiat 9) Austin British Leyland Chrysler PSA 10) Renault PSA Renault Renault Each decade, the makeup of the industry changes significantly Top 10 Manufacturers (in volume)