The Benz Patent-Motorwagen is widely considered the world’s first practical automobile. Carl Benz filed his patent — German patent DRP 37435, for a “vehicle powered by a gas engine” — on 29 January 1886, and the document is often called the automobile’s “birth certificate”. The Motorwagen was a lightweight three-wheeler powered by a single-cylinder four-stroke engine of under one horsepower. It was the start of a line that leads directly to today’s Mercedes-Benz cars.

At a glance
Inventor Carl Benz, Mannheim, Germany
Patent filed 29 January 1886
Wheels Three (single front wheel)
Engine Single-cylinder four-stroke, about 0.75 hp
Top speed About 10 mph (16 km/h)

A vehicle designed as a whole

Others had put engines on carriages, but Benz designed the Motorwagen as an integrated vehicle: a tubular steel frame, wire wheels, an engine mounted horizontally at the rear, a large flywheel, and chain drive to the rear wheels. He chose three wheels because he had not solved the steering geometry of four.

Firsts in the design

  • Electric ignition using a spark coil.
  • Water cooling by evaporation.
  • A carburetor of Benz’s own design.
  • A differential to let the rear wheels turn at different speeds in corners.

Public debut

Benz drove the Motorwagen publicly in Mannheim in July 1886. Early demonstrations were not always smooth, and the public was skeptical. Improved Model II and Model III versions followed, and it was Bertha Benz’s daring long-distance drive in 1888 that proved the car’s practicality. Read Bertha Benz’s first road trip.

Daimler at the same time

Just a few dozen miles away, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were building their own motor carriage in 1886. The two men never met, but their companies merged in 1926 as Daimler-Benz. Read the Mercedes-Benz history.

Recognition

The Benz patent is included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register. Replicas of the Motorwagen are on display in museums worldwide, and Mercedes-Benz has built working replicas.