History of the automobile

100 years of the automobile: special postage stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost from 1986

The history of the automobile in the narrower sense began in the 19th century. The term automobile is derived from the Greek αὐτός autós , German 'self' , and the Latin mobilis 'mobile' , and originally only served to distinguish between motor vehicles and wagons or carriages. In this article he refers to the in -intentioned everyday language passenger cars .

Although various steam engines and steam buses have been built since the beginning of the 19th century and electric cars as well from 1881 , 1886, with the Benz Patent Motor Car number 1 by the German inventor Carl Benz, is considered to be the year of the birth of the automobile as a passenger car with a combustion engine .

In 1900, 40 percent of the initially few automobiles in the United States were still powered by steam power , 38 percent by electricity , and only 22 percent by gasoline. Even 20 years later had a superior drive with unlimited range of a gasoline engine prevailed before the 1930s the diesel engine increasingly gained market share, especially in commercial vehicles.

After the motorized car by in almost all areas draft animals drawn carts peeled off during the first half of the 20th century, reached in the second half in a veritable boom of the motorized individual in industrialized countries a climax of the ecological and economic limits in the face of finite resources pointed out. Since the beginning of the 21st century, solutions have been increasingly sought in electric and hybrid drives , as well as in new mobility concepts with the move away from motorized individual transport.

See also : History of the Commercial Vehicle Industry

Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The technical developments that led to today's automobile began around 4000 BC. BC with the invention of the wheel , which took place independently of one another in several cultures at the same time. The origin of the car , i.e. the rigid construction with wheels that preceded today's automobile, is controversial. More recent research suggests a Central European invention in what is now Germany.

Around 400 BC BC. Treadmills operated with muscle power moved Hellenic siege towers . 308 BC In the 4th century BC, the chariot of Demetrios was transported by Phaleron by people who were inside the chariot. A chariot is also known from Roman history that was moved inside by slaves with muscle power (around 200 AD).

Roger Bacon (* 1214), a monk and scholar of the Middle Ages, first formulated the idea of the self-employed ( auto nom) advancing automobile:

"One day you will be able to build carts that move and stay in motion without being pushed or pulled by any animal."

So-called muscle cars appeared in Germany around 1447 . In 1490 Leonardo da Vinci drew a kind of self-propelled armored car .

17th century

Sailing car by Simon Stevin, illustration (1649)

In 1600, the Dutch mathematician Simon Stevin built a working sailing cart with wheels that could transport 30 people using wind energy .

In 1649, the Nuremberg-based kit maker Hans Hautsch built a four-wheeled mechanical car that supposedly drove by itself at 1.6 km / h:

“That is free and does not require any pretensioning, neither by horses nor otherwise. And such a car takes 2,000 paces in an hour; you can keep still if you want, you can continue if you want, and yet everything is clockwork. "

Contemporaries suspected a small boy inside the car, who drove the mechanics with physical strength; Hautsch's later work and vehicles were all based on muscle power or clockwork. In 1650, the future King, Prince Karl Gustav of Sweden Hautsch, bought the vehicle for 500 Reichstaler and used it at Queen Kristina's celebrations to the astonishment of those present. From 1650 to 1660, Hautsch marketed mechanical, muscle-powered “show cars”, that is, apparently self-driving cars with splendid furnishings.

In 1673 the Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695) constructed a piston machine with powder drive. Huygens is considered to be the pioneer of the internal combustion engine and the inventor of the piston engine , which is how most of today's car engines work. Huygens' engine was an explosion engine that used gunpowder as fuel.

Around 1670, the Jesuit priest Ferdinand Verbiest built a model of a four-wheeled steam car at the Chinese court in the young Qing dynasty and thus probably the first time a vehicle powered by its own power. It remained with a model about 60 cm long, but it was operational and should have been driven for about an hour with a coal filling. Thereby serving as a drive aeolipile whose vapor blowing on an impeller. Its rotational force was transmitted to the front wheels by means of gears. Verbiest used the term engine for the first time in this context . It is unclear exactly when this model was actually built, and there is no authentic representation of it. It is described in Verbiest's writings, which were summarized in 1681 as Astronomia Europea in Latin. A friar brought the work from China to Europe so that it could finally be printed in Dillingen in 1687 . In 1775 a three-wheeled steam car model was built in Karlsruhe, the construction of which was based on Verbiest's descriptions.

The English physicist Isaac Newton presented the concept of a steam car in 1680 . In 1690 the French Denis Papin built a steam engine with pistons.

18th century

Fardier steam car by Nicholas Cugnot (1769)

The Englishman Thomas Newcomen developed the steam engine further in 1712 by generating the steam outside the cylinder.

In 1768, the Scottish physicist James Watt made further changes to the steam engine and is considered to be the inventor of the direct-acting steam engine. In the strict sense of the word, the first steam locomotives were also auto-mobiles.

In 1769, the French military engineer Nicholas Cugnot built a three-wheeled steam car for the French army, which was to serve as an artillery tractor . The vehicle had two cylinders, the piston rods of which turned the front wheel via a kind of freewheel gear. The construction of this steam engine went back to the Russian inventor Iwan Iwanowitsch Polsunow . According to various sources, the Frenchman's steam engine reached a speed of between 3 and 5 km / h. The Cugnot “steam block car” was difficult to steer, however: its kettle hanging over the front axle gave it too high a front weight, so that one of the first demonstration drives ended at a barracks wall. The original is now in the Paris Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers .

At the end of the 18th century, the Russian Ivan Petrowitsch Kulibin created the so-called samohyb , which in its basic design with chassis , flywheel , gearbox , band brakes and roller bearings could be found in the first automobiles with internal combustion engines almost a hundred years later .

19th century

Richard Trevithick's steam car , 1803

Self-propelled car by Isaac de Rivaz, around 1804

Lenoir's Hippomobile , around 1863

The petrol-powered car built by Siegfried Marcus in 1870

Benz Patent Motor Car number 1 from 1886

In the 19th century a number of was steam-driven cars built. In addition, inventors and engineers across Europe experimented with muscle cars and sailing cars .

In England Richard Trevithick had developed a small steam car model as early as 1797, in which the boiler was heated with a glowing iron rod inserted into the flame tube. As a result, he constructed a steam car in 1801 that carried passengers under the name Puffing Devil in Camborne at a speed of 8 km / h even over inclines.

In 1803 Trevithick built another self-propelled vehicle, the London Steam Carriage , which was basically a stagecoach equipped with a steam engine . It caught the attention of the public and the press, but was much more expensive to operate than a normal horse-drawn carriage and therefore could not prevail.

At the end of 1804, the American wheelwright Oliver Evans was able to realize his idea of ​​running a vehicle with steam. She had employed him since 1772; However, his personal circumstances and adverse circumstances stood in the way of implementation. Evans' Orukter Amphibolos was powered by his further development of the Newcomen steam engine. The vehicle was a dredger with a bucket wheel in the rear. Orukter Amphibolos covered the 1.5 km walk from Evans' workshop to the water on his own. Evans had built a four-wheeled cart to carry the boat. His steam engine drove two of the wheels via transmission belts. Once in the water, the trip on land could not be repeated. Nevertheless, Evans built not only one of the first functioning automobiles, but also the first amphibious vehicle .

Also in 1804, the Swiss Isaac de Rivaz developed the first car with a combustion engine, which is said to have traveled 26 meters. The vehicle had a two stroke - combustion engine , with a mixture of coal gas and hydrogen was operated.

Another important condition for the automobile created Erasmus Darwin in 1761 without patenting it: the knuckle - steering . It is also attributed to the German Georg Lankensperger , who patented it in 1816. It was then forgotten and, independently of each other, rediscovered and patented by Amédée Bollée in France in 1873 and by Carl Benz in 1891 .

As early as 1828 there was a more or less regular shuttle service with a steam bus between London and Bath in England . From 1829 the Englishman Walter Hancock built steam cars for private use as well as several steam buses . At the beginning of the 20th century, another successful steam truck, the Sentinel, was built .

1839 was the first electric vehicle of Robert Anderson in Aberdeen built.

In 1860 the German Christian Reithmann patented the four-stroke engine . In the same year, the Frenchman Étienne Lenoir received a patent for an operational gas engine. In September 1863 he drove his internal combustion engine road vehicle , known as the Hippomobile , from Paris to Joinville-le-Pont and back; it was the first operational vehicle with internal combustion. Lenoir sold another Hippomobile to the Russian Tsar Alexander II .

In 1869 the two Frenchmen Pierre Michaux and M. Perreaux constructed the first bicycle powered by a steam engine .

In 1870 the German-Austrian Siegfried Marcus undertook driving tests in Vienna with a direct-acting, compressionless two-stroke engine mounted on a simple handcart.

In 1873 Julius Söhnlein is said to have built an operational motor vehicle; a replica of the vehicle was destroyed in Munich in 1944 as a result of the war.

From 1876 the production of four-stroke engines began in Deutz AG ; these engines were protected by the German Reich patent DRP 532 of May 9, 1876.

In 1878 the first motorized vehicle competition took place when the Oshkosh Steam Wagon from Frank A. Shomer and the technically superior, but unfinished Green Bay Steamer from EP Cowles competed against each other in Wisconsin . The state donated the prize money of 10,000 dollars (around 238,100 dollars as of today) for those citizens who invented a “cheap and practical substitute for horses and other animals on the highway and on the farm”. A distance of 325 km from Green Bay to Madison had to be covered and special tests had to be passed. The Oshkosh won after Green Bay was eliminated early due to an accident.

The steam mobiles by Amédée Bollée (from 1873) and Léon Serpollet (from 1888) were among the most important constructions in France at this time ; The latter, together with his brother Henri, had already patented a steam boiler that was ready for operation more quickly in 1881 . A well-known manufacturer of such vehicles from 1884 was De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux .

The Romanian Dimitrie Văsescu also built a steam-powered four-wheeled automobile in Paris in 1880. The right-hand steering and rubber-coated metal rims were characteristic of his vehicle. With his trips through Paris Văsescu caused a sensation in the contemporary press. In 1906 Văsescu returned to Romania with his vehicle.

Despite this complex development, it was not until 1886, with the Benz patent motor car number 1 by the German inventor Carl Benz, that the modern automobile with internal combustion engine was born , as it attracted a great deal of media attention and led to series production.

at the end of the 19th century

The 81-year-old Carl Benz in 1925 on his motor vehicle developed in 1886

Model of Gottlieb Daimler's motorized carriage from 1886

Reconstruction of the flake electric car from 1888

Record electric vehicle La Jamais Contente , the first car to go over 100 km / h (1899), illustration

Record steam vehicle Stanley Woggle-Bug (1903)

The public viewed the benefits of self-driving vehicles with skepticism. The development took place in isolation and usually by individuals. It came a step further in Germany in the mid-1880s, typically through two inventors who were only about 100 kilometers away from each other working on automobiles with an internal combustion engine and initially knew nothing about each other. One of them, Carl Benz , built his tricycle in Mannheim in 1885, and on January 29, 1886, he applied for a patent for his motor vehicle (imperial patent 37435). This is considered to be the hour of birth of the “modern” automobile with a combustion engine. Shortly thereafter, Gottlieb Däumler (later name change to Daimler ) and Wilhelm Maybach and Siegfried Marcus in Vienna followed independently in Cannstatt near Stuttgart with further vehicles.

The question of whether a roadworthy automobile with a combustion engine was built before Carl Benz's motor car was at times controversial. The people discussed include George Baldwin Selden , Siegfried Marcus , Étienne Lenoir and Friedrich Louis Tuchscherer .

Several three-wheeled electrically powered road vehicles have been known since 1881, such as the Trouvé Tricycle . The first known German electric car was built by the A. Flocken machine factory in Coburg in 1888 . It is believed that this four-wheeled electric car was the world's first electrically powered passenger car (passenger car) according to today's definition. At about the same time, the Russians Yablotschkow and Romanow constructed the first passenger cars with electric motors.

Bertha Benz undertook the first overland trip of more than 100 km from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in early August 1888 in the Benz patent motor car number 3 . She ran out of petrol very quickly , so she had to “refuel” ligroin , which was then sold as a cleaning agent in pharmacies. So that was the city pharmacy of Wiesloch to the first gas station in the world. An official German holiday route and route of industrial culture, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route , has been commemorating that pioneering journey since 2008 .

Benz & Cie. submitted a patent specification for a three-wheeled "vehicle with gas engine operation" as early as 1886. The German inventor Carl Benz drove around with it in public. In 1894 he was the first to mass-produce an automobile. The German Gottlieb Daimler also built automobiles in 1887, completely independently of Carl Benz, and founded the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG). The carriage he developed reached a top speed of 16 km / h and was actually a converted cab with an engine. He worked with the engine builder Wilhelm Maybach and developed various vehicles.

The inventor of the automobile with a combustion engine, Carl Benz, was an avid velocipede. He obtained some parts for his car from the Adler-Fahrradwerke in Frankfurt and described his vehicle in the patent text as a “small car in the style of the tricycles.” The press spoke of a “motorized velocipede”. The modern low wheels , which had already been introduced from Coventry in the UK , were already competing with his patented motor car because they cost only one sixth the price of an automobile and achieved a comparable top speed. Early technical bicycle innovations were very important for the development of the automobile. The elements of success in automotive technology that originated in the bicycle industry were tubular steel frames, ball bearings, chain drives and differentials (from the pedal tricycles) and, in particular, the bicycle tires from tire pioneer John Boyd Dunlop . Riding a bike also provided a lot of knowledge about driving physics that could not be obtained with carriages or in rail traffic. Many of the later most important car manufacturers were previously bicycle manufacturers, for example in Germany Adler, NSU, Opel, Stoewer, Wanderer and Wartburg.

Siegfried Marcus , a native of Mecklenburg, who lived in Vienna , had a car powered by a four-stroke gasoline engine built independently of Benz and Daimler in 1888 and 1889, which, like modern cars, had four wheels. In 1888 Albert F. Hammel built a two-cylinder motor car in Copenhagen.

Automobile factories were established in Europe from around 1891, including Panhard & Levassor and Peugeot in France , both of which initially used Daimler engines produced under license. Daimler also founded companies in England and Austria. In 1892 Rudolf Diesel received a patent for a “new, rational heat engine” with a higher degree of efficiency. In 1897 he designed the first diesel engine , but it was still too heavy for mobile applications. With the Netphener Omnibusgesellschaft , the world's first petrol-powered bus began operating in 1895 .

Building on his experience with the Heilmann locomotive , the French engineer Jean-Jacques Heilmann developed a steam-electric automobile in 1899.

The entry "Automobiler Wagen" in the Brockhaus in 1896

The first documented speed record of an automobile was already set a year earlier, in 1898, by the French Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat with 63.14 km / h with an electric car . Until 1964, automobile speed records were only recognized by vehicles that were driven by the wheels. The Austrian automobile manufacturer Gräf & Stift produced the first front-wheel drive car in 1898 and received a patent for it in 1900. A year later, Camille Jenatzy was the first to reach speeds of over 100 km / h with the La Jamais Contente electric car .

De Dion-Bouton switched to gasoline engines after 1893 and by 1900 was both the largest automobile and vehicle engine manufacturer in the world. 140 manufacturers in all car building nations used its "high-speed" built-in engine or built it under license. Among them were Renault and, in the USA from 1900, Oldsmobile or Rambler , which replaced the electric vehicle manufacturer Electric Vehicle Company (EVC) , which specializes in taxis in large cities , as the market leader.

The newspapers and encyclopedias of the last century already devoted a great deal of space to the automobile under the term “motor vehicle”. The Brockhaus Conversation Lexicon, in its 1896 edition, summarized the technical and economic advantages of the automobile over horse and steam cars:

“The advantages of these motorized road carts compared to those pulled by draft animals are multiple. First of all, greater speeds can be achieved with motor vehicles , even for longer periods of time, than with draft animals; larger and sustained inclines are also more easily overcome. The operating costs with M. are considerably lower than with horse operation, both with continuous and especially with intermittent operation, because the M. only incurs operating costs during the journey, while horses have to be fed, even when they are not needed. For cities with heavy traffic, the M. also bring the appreciable advantages that they take up less space than the horse-drawn wagons and that the pollution of the streets is avoided. Finally, on dusty country roads, the occupants of an M. are more spared from the dust than on horse-drawn carriages. "

- Brockhaus-Konversationslexikon, 1894-1896

In 1895 the Aberdeen Weekly Journal considered the autocar or self-driven carriage “the embodiment of an old idea. The ideas of modern engineers on the subject are rather immature ”.

End of the 19th century, new words spread around the car, as the gentlemen drivers , English gentleman driver , and the amusement ride on a pleasure car .

Development in the United States

Until the First World War

One of the first automobiles of the White House : Pierce Great Arrow 48 HP sedan of US President William Howard Taft (1909)

Riker Electric Victoria (1900)

Stevens-Duryea Model L Stanhope (1903)

Packard Model L Tonneau (1904)

In the USA there was still no superordinate road network in the second half of the 19th century. Long-distance connections existed along the coasts and on the large rivers with ships and scheduled boats as well as with the constantly expanding railroad. These, as well as public transport in the big cities, were increasingly monopolized . At the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania ) in 1876 , the first official world exhibition in the USA, George Brayton presented his two-stroke gas engine with working and compression cylinders arranged in pairs and with continuous combustion, the Brayton engine . Although there were early attempts at automobiles with internal combustion engines, for example by Charles E. and J. Frank Duryea (who set up the first car factory in the USA in Chicopee Falls ( Massachusetts ) in 1893 ), Charles Brady King , Henry Ford or Alexander Winton , sat down initially steam and electric drive. Trendsetting in the first area were the developments of the Stanley brothers, which led to both the Locomobile and the Stanley Steamer , as well as the later truck manufacturer White and the Grout . With the probably most perfect steam car ever, the Doble , this technology reached its peak in the 1920s. Economically, it no longer played a role before the First World War. The foundations for the electric car industry in the USA were laid by William Morrison with the first successful four-wheeled electric car in the country, Henry G. Morris and Pedro G. Salom (from 1893), JA Barrett and A. Frank Perret ( Barrett & Perret Electric , 1896), Andrew L. Riker and Hiram Percy Maxim . A syndicate tried to control the taxi business and built the Electric Vehicle Company into the largest automaker in the United States, but ultimately failed. Within just 5 years, the number of electric cars dropped from first to third (behind combustion engines and steam engines).

The development of the gasoline car was also massively hindered by other manipulations. George Baldwin Selden had already built a vehicle with a Brayton engine in 1877 that was hardly usable. He applied for a patent for the overall concept in 1879, but delayed the issuance of this universal patent on a car with a combustion engine until 1895 in order to achieve the best possible effect. In his opinion, this included all corresponding vehicles manufactured or imported in the USA during the patent period. In 1899 he sold the rights to the Electric Vehicle Company . The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM) was founded to collect royalties from hundreds of manufacturers and dozen of importers . The scope of the patent, but not this itself, has been legally challenged by so-called "independent" vehicle manufacturers headed by Henry Ford. In 1911, Ford achieved the limitation of the patent to vehicles with Brayton engines in the second instance, which made it worthless.

In 1897 the Winton Motor Car Company was founded. In 1899 the Olds Motor Works , the Packard Motor Car Company and the engine manufacturer Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company, the predecessor of Buick, followed . In 1901 the car began to be built by George N. Pierce & Company, manufacturer of the passenger car with the largest displacement to date ( Pierce Great Arrow 1912; 13.5 liters). In 1903 Ransom Eli Olds had to leave the company he founded and founded the Reo Motor Car Company the following year . At the same time, brothers John Francis Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge funded Henry Ford's new business - and supplied virtually all of the components in his early vehicles. They did not come onto the market until 1914 with the first Dodge automobile.

Packard Model F "Old Pacific" (1903)

At the beginning of the 20th century, automobile races were held and speed records were set on the sandy beach of the winter resort Ormond in Florida (today Ormond Beach ). After a few years, operations gradually moved to the neighboring Daytona Beach . In 1903 two automobiles crossed the USA for the first time independently of one another: first a Winton, driven by private citizen Horatio Nelson, and shortly afterwards a Packard Model F called the "Old Pacific" , which the plant had provided.

The auto industry developed vehicles in all price categories, from buckboards to luxury and sports cars such as the ALCo , Lozier or Simplex . Chadwick launched the first supercharged car in 1908 (at a surcharge equivalent to a mid-range car) and a Thomas also won the longest automobile race in history from New York to Paris in 1908 .

Race New York-Paris 1908: Thomas Flyer 35/40 HP Model 35, at the steering wheel Montague Roberts .

Stoddard-Dayton Model 10C 4-passenger Roadster (1910)

Although the rich and powerful of the country preferred European cars for some time, a number of corporations emerged. Pope Manufacturing was the first, followed by General Motors , which William Crapo Durant organized around his Buick Motor Car Company in 1908. In 1909 Oldsmobile and the Cadillac Motor Car Company , which emerged from the Henry Ford Company in 1903, were added. The carriage building giant Studebaker began with electrics and the exclusive sale of third-party brands before taking over the Everitt-Metzger-Flanders Company , which it co-financed , and producing its own cars. General Motors almost became the first US corporation to collapse. The cause was the huge investments in automotive and supplier companies, with which Durant overwhelmed the company. He had to leave the company - temporarily - in 1910 and it took GM years to recover under the leadership of Charles W. Nash . In contrast, the Pope Group began to crumble before the death of its founder Albert Augustus Pope in 1909. The partially constructed from the remains of Pope Empire Group United States Motors Company of Benjamin Briscoe broke in 1912 spectacularly along and ripped a dozen manufacturers with it, including Briscoe , Brush , Stoddard-Dayton , and Thomas . The Buick President and GM Vice President Walter P. Chrysler was brought in to renovate and later built up his Chrysler Corporation around the group's only surviving brand, Maxwell . Another GM man, Charles Nash, was fired from Durant after his - temporary - return to the top of the group in 1916 and shortly afterwards bought the Thomas B. Jeffery Company , one of the largest manufacturers, which he reorganized as Nash Motors ,

International High Wheel Wagon (1911)

The highwheeler , which flourished between 1900 and 1910, is one of the peculiarities of US auto development . The eponymous, huge wooden spoke wheels were supposed to cope better with the unpaved roads. It was constructed very simply - often no more than a cart with a motor - but robust, cheap to buy and maintain and it could be repaired by the village blacksmith. Between 1910 and 1914 there was a boom in cyclecars which subsided as quickly as it had appeared. One of the reasons for the decline of these light vehicles was probably the Ford Model T, which was offered as a full-fledged car at a lower price than many a cycle car.

Motorization in the First World War

Building a highway system was seen as a patriotic task after 1910. In 1916, the Lincoln Highway connected the east and west coasts of the USA for the first time with a road. It initially ran through 13 states .

The USA declared war on the German Reich on April 6, 1917 and thus played an active role in the First World War . Technically, the US armed forces were poorly equipped; a conservative military leadership had long underestimated the value of motorization. Against this background, the commercial vehicle industry received late but intensive funding, which was reflected in the Liberty program , in which 62 companies, manufacturers and suppliers took part. Passenger cars (then known as pleasure cars ), on the other hand, were viewed by the government as a negligible luxury good. At the end of 1917, the War Industries Board (WIB) initiated the rationing of materials essential to the war effort. Cars were given the same low priority as musical instruments, fur coats or perfume. For smaller manufacturers, this meant a de facto standstill that threatened the very existence of the company. Although that was usually not the only reason, several car manufacturers had to give up because of it. In this way Abbott , Pathfinder , Lambert and indirectly Inter-State went under. However, the availability of certain materials and components was only part of the war-related problems. There was also a massive transport problem because military transports practically blocked the rail network for the non-prioritized economy. It was not only becoming increasingly difficult to find important components, but also to organize their transport within a reasonable period of time. This also applied to the delivery of completed vehicles. In this situation, armaments orders from the army were one of the few alternatives for manufacturers, others were the production of light trucks and / or tractors, for which there was great demand. These factors, combined with increased agricultural production in support of the European allies, created massive problems.

The 1920s

Advertisement from Hare's Motors for a Locomobile Model 48 Sportif (1920)

Production car Ford Model A (1928)

Encouraged by the government, the farmers therefore reclaimed more land. This also resulted in an increased demand for additional workers, which had already become apparent when the USA entered the war and the drafting of agricultural workers and farmers. Many farmers went into debt to buy new agricultural machinery or to electrify their operations. In the expectation that it would take a very long time before European agriculture would recover from the aftermath of the war, prices for farmland also rose significantly.

As the agricultural sector in Europe developed faster, prices collapsed and many farmers found themselves unable to meet their obligations and service their installments and mortgages . Many of them were no longer able to pay the taxes that were due and which were higher due to their earlier better income. The complex problem accompanied the US economy for a decade and a half. What made the industry even worse was the fact that the government canceled large orders, sold off trucks that were no longer needed and was slow to meet its own obligations.

In 1920, William Durant had to leave General Motors again. He left behind a badly organized corporation, which his successor Alfred P. Sloan set up anew. The “branding” of the group with assigned market segments, which has been valid for decades, goes back to him. Such was Chevrolet responsible for the lower middle class. Oldsmobile and Oakland were placed above it (Oakland's subsidiary Pontiac , introduced in 1926, soon replaced it entirely) and Buick served the upper middle class that had been intended for Cadillac up to then . Only now did Cadillac establish itself as a luxury brand. GMC was established as a commercial vehicle division. The problems at Chevrolet had been so great that the brand was seriously up for grabs. It was ultimately retained. Instead, the Sheridan Motor Car Company, which had only been founded the previous year, disappeared in 1921 and in 1923 came the end of Scripps-Booth and the Samson tractor brand , which had opposed the supremacy of the Fordson tractor. After that, GM experienced a decade-long boom.

Durant founded the Durant Motors Corporation in 1921 , which he organized similarly. She became one of the first victims of the economic crisis of the 1930s. A lesser-known crisis affected the United States between 1920 and 1922. One of the victims was a young company headed by former Packard manager Emlem Hare , who had taken over some highly respected brands, but all of them were in trouble themselves. To Hare's Motors were among Mercer , Biddle , Crane-Simplex and Locomobile ; The latter was acquired from Durant.

In the 1920s, the increasingly rationally manufactured Ford Model T set the standard and achieved market dominance that was unprecedented until then, which culminated in 1924 with a market share of 55 percent across all vehicle classes: every second newly registered passenger car in the USA was a "T" ; General Motors, which was reorganized by Alfred P. Sloan after the departure of Durant , achieved a combined total of around 30 percent with its then car brands Chevrolet , Buick , Oakland , Oldsmobile and Cadillac . The rest was spread over 100 manufacturers in all price ranges.

Competition with the railroad

The railroad was around 50 years before the automobile and in state hands in almost all countries. The railway companies were not interested in the competition from increasing individual motorized traffic . Possibly it was they, along with the lobby of the horse-drawn vehicle operators who enforced the Red Flag Act or Locomotive Act in England , a series of laws that came into force in 1865 and, among other things, stipulated that every automobile had to be preceded by a man who entered Horn blew and a red flag waved. The "Locomotive Act" was not repealed until 1896 and, according to several sources, blocked the expansion of roads and the development of an auto industry at the end of the 19th century.

The competition intensified worldwide with the triumphant advance of automobiles and was not over even in the 1930s. The government of Palestine set up by the British occupying power, for example, hindered the development of an automobile industry with all the means at its disposal. The few railway lines were in government hands and worked with more losses, the more the car spread: in 1922 40 civilian vehicles were registered, in 1924 already 891, in 1926 there were 2306 and 6126 in 1933. The government increased the taxes on cars and cars accordingly Spare parts to 50% (spare parts calculated according to the total weight in kg to meet the operators of buses) and for gasoline to 100%. In Section 12 of the Road Transport Ordinaries (road traffic regulations), bus drivers were instructed, under threat of severe penalties, not to allow any standing persons during the journey, a regulation that is difficult to enforce due to the high popularity of this young form of transport.

The car owners and drivers in Palestine had the support of the Socialist Workers' Party and were themselves organized in a kind of trade union, the Association of Motor Transport . When the government once again increased license fees for bus operators in 1930, there was a week-long strike by all drivers, which led to concessions from the government. In 1933 the government took £ 300,000 in taxes and licenses from the automotive industry, but spent only a third of that on road construction.

Development up to the First World War

Automobile displaces horse-drawn carriage (1902)

Mercedes-Simplex , illustration (1911)

At the beginning of the 20th century, automobiles replaced horse-drawn vehicles as an individual means of transportation. This development was associated with resistance. It had economic reasons because the industry that had developed around donkeys , horses , horse food, and cart construction and maintenance collapsed. The presence of the car also provoked social conflicts: the early car owners dominated the streets with noise and speed, they were considered arrogant and nouveau riche. Numerous laws dealt with these conflicts - internationally differently - and regulated, among other things, the speed of travel and the maintenance of the road quality, as required by motorists: For example, the wagon operators had to keep the road free of horse manure so that the automobiles did not slip.

In the 1910s, the term “ driving license ” was established in German for permission to drive a vehicle. Appraisers had to determine the fitness of a vehicle to drive before it could be operated. Cars with technical defects could lose this approval until another appraisal. Roads and paths had to be of a certain standard in order to be used by motor vehicles, and many states - such as Sweden in 1917 - introduced speed limits :

"Driving with a motor vehicle is [...] permitted on public roads with a width of at least 3.6 meters, as well as on streets and squares. [...] The speed of a passenger car may only be so high that it can be covered in an hour

• In cities, market towns or other densely built-up areas: a maximum of 20 kilometers in daylight, a maximum of 15 kilometers in the dark, and a maximum of 10 kilometers in fog;
• elsewhere: in daylight a maximum of 30 kilometers, which speed may be increased to 40 kilometers if the driver can see at least 250 meters [...], [...] in darkness a maximum of 15 kilometers, in fog a maximum of 10 kilometers. "

At the end of the 19th century, different types of drive for automobiles competed strongly with one another before the internal combustion engine caught on.

Each type of drive had specific advantages and disadvantages. Steam automobiles, for example, were faster than electrically powered ones and more reliable with fewer mechanical components than gasoline powered ones, and troubleshooting was easier. In addition, they were quieter and less odorous than these, did not have to be switched and managed gradients that were still insurmountable for many gasoline-powered vehicles. In principle, their technology had been known for decades and not so much new technical territory such as electricity or the gasoline engine. Steam cars used enormous amounts of water; However, this consumption could be better covered by the numerous cattle troughs than the gasoline consumption of vehicles with internal combustion engines, which initially relied on pharmacies and shops before an increasingly dense network of petrol stations was built up. Electric cars show their strengths best in an urban environment. There were relay stations here where battery packs were exchanged in a few minutes and the range of the vehicles increased from 20 to 30 to 100 km in a short time. They were very easy to use and the handling was “cleaner”, which is why many early motorists opted for them. Electric cars were the top-selling automobiles in the United States in the early 1890s, but lost that supremacy within just five years. The production figures for American automobile manufacturing from 1900 show a total of 4,192 automobiles from 75 manufacturers, including 1,688 steam automobiles, 1,575 electric vehicles and 929 vehicles with gasoline engines.

The gasoline automobile did not prevail until the 1910s against other types of drive such as the petroleum engine and the alcohol engine . Reasons were, among others. the technical progress in engine construction and cheaper fuel made from crude oil with a much higher energy density than electrical storage, as well as the advantages based on this, which are still valid today: a long range and a high possible speed. The final breakthrough came with the electric starter , which Delco brought to market in 1912 and which Cadillac installed as standard. It saved the laborious and not harmless cranking by hand and thus brought the decisive advantage over the steam drive with its disadvantage of the long preheating time and the electric drive. As early as 1920 these vehicles were niche products and only Stanley still built steam cars in significant numbers.

The principle of the first automobile has been preserved to this day. With the general spread of automobiles in the 20th century, many technical innovations were added.

Most of the vehicles produced in Germany at that time were designed like the Mercedes-Simplex (1906). They had an engine in front, a gearbox, and drive shafts and chains to the driven wheels. The latter persisted on heavy wagons until around 1910 and on trucks much longer.

In 1900, Gräf & Stift in Vienna patented the front-wheel drive it had developed in 1898 and built two prototypes. A year later, Frederick W. Lanchester patented the disc brake . The first vehicle with disc brakes built in large series was the Citroën DS in 1955 . In 1903, the Spyker 60/80 HP was the first sports car with all-wheel drive . In the same year, Mary Anderson was granted the first patent for a windshield wiper . As early as 1902, Louis Renault patented a centrifugal compressor ; The Great Chadwick Six was the first to offer a compressor to increase the performance of a passenger car. Ray Harroun first used a rearview mirror in the very first Indy 500 race in 1909 on his Marmon Wasp and instead left the mechanic who usually drove with him at home. In 1910 De Dion-Bouton launched the first passenger car with a V8 engine, followed by Packard's first V12 at the end of 1915.

In 1913, Ford began producing affordable automobiles on an assembly line . The next year the first hydraulic brake system came on the market. Chassis were made from pressed steel more and more often after 1905. The first mass-produced all-steel body (with a metal instead of wood structure) was made by Budd for Dodge in 1918 . It did not gain general acceptance until the 1930s.

The first trucks with diesel engines appeared in 1923 .

Development since 1918

The DKW F 1 was one of the first German automobiles with front-wheel drive

1961 the first compact car with a five-door body: Renault 4

1974 VW Golf - breakthrough for front-wheel drive and compact design also in Germany

Especially popular in Germany: the station wagon , here Volvo 240 (1983)

In 1984 one of the first vans : Renault Espace I.

Spread of SUVs since the turn of the millennium, here Porsche Cayenne

Trend towards a high waistline and small window areas, here Mercedes-Benz C 257 (2019)

The upswing in motorization came to a standstill in Europe after the First World War, and even more noticeably after the Second World War. In 1945 in particular in the destroyed German cities, the automobiles had largely disappeared from the broken roads and the draft horses had returned. Many drivers who had no experience with horses turned into coach drivers and treated the animals in an unprofessional way:

"Perhaps we are already too used to the mechanical numbness of the engines, otherwise some car owners would have a more loving eye for the difficult life of their draft horse."

Engine and performance

After the First World War itself had reciprocating engine as a four-stroke - gasoline engine already enforced. From the 1930s onwards, the four-stroke diesel engine established itself in parallel - successfully for the first time in automobiles as the Mercedes-Benz OM 636 . The T-head and slide motors proved to be technical dead ends . The two-stroke engine , which was widespread until the 1960s, also failed due to limited opportunities for further development. The rotary piston engine , developed from 1933 and brought onto the market in 1964 , did not achieve a breakthrough. At the same time, inventions such as the timing belt control of the valves enabled the cost-effective production of high-performance, low-maintenance four-stroke engines with overhead camshafts , so that alternative engine concepts from car engine construction were displaced for a long time. Since modern internal combustion engines also emit pollutants and greenhouse gases , the development of the electric motor has been increasingly pursued for several years and the market share of cars with electric or hybrid motors is increasing significantly.

Advances in four-stroke engine construction, but also improving the quality of fuels and lubricating oils, made it possible to continuously increase the liter output over the decades . In 1921 in Berlin, at that time the most heavily motorized city in Germany, 78% of the 61,000 registered cars had a drive power of up to 14 HP (10.3 kW), with a larger displacement than today. Early mass models of the 1920s such as the Ford T (20 hp or 14.7 kW) or the “ Opel Laubfrosch ” (12 hp or 8.8 kW) reached top speeds of around 60 or 70 km / h.

During and immediately after the Second World War , some cars and trucks had to be converted to wood gasifiers due to a lack of fuel . In addition, fundamentally different engine concepts were tried again with seriousness, but these hardly achieved series production, including the gas turbine drive in addition to the electric motor .

The steady increase in performance continued unabated after the war. In the early 1950s, a sports car like the Porsche 356 had 40 hp. In 1963, the successor 911 had 130 hp, the basic version of which developed 272 hp in 1993 and 385 hp today. In a similar way, the engine performance in all other vehicle classes continued to increase. Today, even the engines of the smallest cars sometimes do more than the luxury vehicles of the 1960s. Micro models such as the Smart Forfour 1.5 Brabus produced in 2005/2006 with 130 kW and a top speed of 221 km / h are, however, the exception in their class. The increase in performance is partly compensated by the steadily increasing empty weight of the vehicles. A VW Golf VIII, for example, needs about twice the engine power of a VW Golf I in order to achieve the same power- to- weight ratio .

Although, with the exception of a few sections on German autobahns, a speed limit of a maximum of 130 km / h applies in almost all countries and environmental awareness is playing an increasingly important role in the purchase decision, an end to the increase in performance is so far not discernible. Volvo's announcement in 2019 that all cars would be limited to a maximum speed of 180 km / h from the factory from 2020 caused a sensation . However, the paradigm shift at Volvo has not yet triggered a trend reversal.

The displacement of internal combustion engines has remained largely constant on the European market since the 1930s and is usually 1.0 to 2.5 liters for four-cylinder engines , which make up the majority. In the upscale segments, engines with 5, 6, 8, 10 or 12 cylinders and a correspondingly larger displacement are also widespread. In the lower price segment, three-cylinder engines are also used. Car models with one- and two-cylinder engines , on the other hand, were only brought out until the 1960s.

The shiftability of the gearbox improved in the 1930s with dog clutch and in the 1950s again with synchronized gearboxes. Automatic transmissions , on the other hand, were only able to establish themselves on the European market for large cars in the upper price segment. The number of forward gears increased from three to four to 5 to 6 from the 1970s.

The performance and reliability of the electrical system and ignition system improved, particularly from the mid-1960s onwards with the spread of three-phase alternators and contactless ignition . In the fuel-air mixture preparation of gasoline engines , the carburettors were replaced by injection systems in the course of the 1980s .

landing gear

The most important design changes to the chassis included the transition from rigid axles to independent suspension and the use of disc brakes instead of drum brakes . For suspension purposes, leaf springs were replaced by coil springs . Air suspension has also been used in passenger car construction since the 1950s, but it is only used in a few types in the upper price segment. Citroën went a different way with the hydropneumatics used from 1955 to 2017 .

Body and drive concept

The body design and the drive concept of an automobile are closely interwoven. The first automobiles were still similar to carriages and were often designed and built by former coach builders. Cross-country pioneering was among other things. the royal Saxon court car maker Emil Heuer with his company glasses body Dresden . Very soon, however, the body was adapted to the requirements of higher speeds. The design became more holistic and less rugged. The drive concept with front engine and rear-wheel drive prevailed. The open body that had been common up until then was more and more replaced by the convertible and sedan . In the USA, the market share of open vehicles fell from 89.7 to 9.6 percent between 1919 and 1930.

Between 1922 and 1924, the Romanian Aurel Perșu built a streamlined automobile. After many aerodynamic calculations and laboratory tests, he came to the conclusion that the ideal shape of a moving vehicle is the so-called "teardrop shape", round at the front and tapering to a point at the back. He managed to achieve extremely low coefficients of drag (like 0.22). After the First World War he had contacts in Germany again , among others with Emil Everling and Gabriel Becker. In 1922 Perșu registered his "four-wheeled streamlined car with wheels built into the streamlined shape " at the German Patent Office in Berlin . In 1923 there was already a 1: 1 wooden model, which Perșu used to create an aluminum body by hand . The vehicle was built from equity in Berlin between 1922 and 1924 .

In the 1930s, there was a progressive development in terms of both the drive system and the body shape. This includes the development of front-wheel drive vehicles , which was first implemented in Germany in the Stoewer V 5 and DKW F 1 , and of so-called streamlined vehicles . How practical and inexpensive front-wheel drive can be was shown in 1948 by the Citroën 2CV . The streamlined Chrysler Airflow came onto the market in 1934 with a front engine and truss frame ; with a rear engine , the Tatra 77 and 87 were representatives of this design; in the USA, the Stout Scarab remained the prototype. The types Volvo PV444 , Peugeot 203 , IFA F 9 , VW Beetle and Porsche 356 built after the Second World War can also be assigned to the streamlined vehicles in terms of design. In the post-war period, some designers sought to further develop the streamlined model towards the vehicle in the form of a teardrop. Concepts with a front engine, for example in the case of Citroën DS , Panhard Dynavia and Saab , as well as designs with a rear engine, so-called trambus cars, were targeted. The “forward control” BMW 600 and Fiat 600 Multipla could be classified under the term “Trambuswagen” . One of the unsolved problems of this design was the lack of a crumple zone at the front. After the Second World War, rear-engined vehicles were initially designed by manufacturers such as Škoda , Fiat , Renault and Volkswagen , but were later discarded. Today, the rear engine is limited to sports and small cars.

From the mid-1940s, vehicles with pontoon bodies and rear-wheel drive came to Europe as a trend from the USA . The new body shape also had an impact on the small car developments that were important in the course of European mass motorization , but not only with rear-wheel or rear-wheel drive. Based on the DKW front-wheel drive cars, the GDR created the P 70 (1955) and Trabant P 50 (1958), small, family-friendly pontoon-shaped cars with transverse engines and front-wheel drive. The Saab 92 also took up this concept from earlier DKW models. In West Germany there were from 1951 with the Lloyd 300 (from 1955 Lloyd Alexander ) cars based on a similar model. In the 1950s in particular, so-called scooter mobiles were also widespread. The VW Beetle became by far the best-selling car of the time .

In the 1950s, the transition from the frame construction to the self-supporting body became apparent. The BMW 700, presented in 1959, was one of the first models with a self-supporting body in Germany.

In the period that followed, the British and French automotive industries in particular provided new impetus. An important development stage in 1959 was the Mini from BMC in compact design with a transversely installed four-cylinder engine. 1961 Renault combined with R4 the full rear the first time with a one piece, top hinged tailgate ( "five-door body"). The design was first transferred to the middle class in 1965 in the also front-wheel drive Renault 16 . 1974 saw the breakthrough in compact design with front-wheel drive in Germany with the VW Golf I. Today the concept is the dominant design for micro , small and compact cars . In the 1970s, there was also a change in the image of station wagons , which have since enjoyed popularity as family and lifestyle cars outside of craft circles. As a result, the market share of classic notchback sedans continued to decline. This development is particularly pronounced in Germany, but in many other countries station wagons are far less popular to this day.

In terms of design, the pontoon body of the 1950s increasingly took on elongated lines that led to the trapezoidal line in the second half of the 1950s. In the course of the 1960s, the design became more objective. From the 1980s onwards, the body was shaped more and more according to aerodynamic aspects. From the 1980s onwards, the van represented a new type of body shape that became more widespread . In the 1990s, starting in the USA , a trend towards the SUV developed , which has enjoyed increasing popularity in Europe since around the turn of the millennium. At the same time, the construction is criticized like no other .

→ Main article : Automotive design

The body's glazing and waistline developed contradictingly. Up until the 1950s, cars mostly had small windows and high waistlines, which resulted in poor all-round visibility. In the 1960s, therefore, the development went in the direction of large window areas and a low belt line. Since the 1990s, on the other hand, there has been a strong tendency towards high waistlines and small window areas. This design of the body makes it easier to comply with the standards for passive safety, i.e. in the event of a frontal and side impact. However, the inadequate all-round view is also a safety risk, which is counteracted in current cars by aids such as parking aids and reversing cameras . Current fields of development are also pedestrian protection and the use of recyclable raw materials .

Furnishing

Useful accessories: The Boyce motor thermometer was screwed onto the radiator instead of the radiator cap. Ford Model T (1916)

Dashboard of a Mercedes-Benz 500 K Special Roadster (1936)

At the beginning of motorization, the vast majority of open vehicles were built. The effort for their bodies could be considerable for expensive models, but windshields, headlights, hoods and spare wheels or rims were often accessories that had to be bought separately. There were usually no instruments or displays either. The fuel level was measured with a stick on the tank and a thermometer was initially only available directly on the engine under the hood. Speedometers were on the market from around 1905. They were an expensive accessory and were usually attached to the floor on a pedestal inclined towards the driver. At this time, the first hood ornament appeared, which often came from the accessories trade as a mere ornament. When electric starters appeared around 1915, they were initially so expensive that they were only installed in series in particularly luxurious cars. These were definitely security-relevant facilities; starting an early automobile with a crank could easily lead to serious accidents. The equipment of the driver and his passengers also included dust-proof clothing. In the course of the decades, the equipment of automobiles became more and more complex. Various terms such as the dashboard , glove compartment , trunk , hat rack or passenger compartment suggest the original conditions in automobiles. In 1927, Chevrolet was the first manufacturer to offer a car radio as a factory accessory; this was preceded by long attempts. Heaters were an accessory well into the 1950s. An air conditioning system developed by Henney was first offered as a factory accessory by Packard in 1940 . It caught on in upscale American car brands in the 1950s and found its way into Europe from the 1970s onwards.

Initially the focus was on increasing comfort, from the 1960s onwards safety played an increasingly important role; from the 1980s onwards, the equipment was characterized by the emerging environmental awareness. The constant progress in computer technology has also been noticeable in automobiles since the 1990s.

The choice of materials changed fundamentally. Leather and wood dominated the interior of the vehicles, these materials are only found in luxury cars today. Until the beginning of the 1950s, the prevailing opinion was that plastics were substitutes, but these became an increasingly important part of vehicle equipment. They gained in importance especially from the 1970s, when the question of road safety came to the fore. At this time, seat belts also became popular in cars.

→ Main article : History of road safety

The oil crises of the 1970s also made economy and economy important attributes of an automobile. The air resistance played an increasingly important role and was determining the shape of the body design. The constantly growing demands on comfort and passive safety have led to an increase in vehicle dimensions and masses in automobiles in recent years. In order to maintain an adequate power-to-weight ratio , it became necessary to continuously increase the engine output. As a result, despite the sharp rise in fuel prices and technical innovations, there were no noticeable reductions in real fuel consumption.

Packard Caribbean Hardtop (1956) with panoramic window, vinyl roof and three-tone paint finish in Dover White / Scottish Heather / Maltese Gray

The colors of the paintwork on automobiles changed constantly and reflected the current zeitgeist. In the pre-war period, the choice of colors was also limited by the technical possibilities at the time. The standard color of the automobile was initially black or a dark shade. Light colors were very expensive and reserved for luxury cars. In the 1950s, increasingly strong, ever lighter colors spread - not only on cars, but also on house facades and furnishings. Another trend came from the USA with pastel shades and sometimes daring two- and even three-color finishes.

Metallic paintwork was developed from the late 1920s, but only caught on from the second half of the 1950s. The development culminated in a dominance of white in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the color culminated in the use of particularly bright tones. Since the 1980s, muted colors and shades of gray have dominated again, often supplemented by a certain trend color (such as red in the early 1990s). Brightly painted cars such as the VW Polo Harlequin have always been an absolute exception. The extent to which the color trends were set from within society or specifically for marketing purposes cannot be assessed with certainty.

Manufacturing and distribution

Industrialization began in 1902 with the introduction of continuous production at Oldsmobile and Rambler . The Ford T was the first automobile to be produced on an assembly line from 1913 , which not only contributed to the general spread of the automobile, but also made the T model the most popular car for decades, with a market share in the USA of over 50% at times. In Germany, assembly line production of passenger cars began in 1924 with the Opel Laubfrosch . Despite the development of such small cars as the Austin Seven and DKW F 1 , the automobile in Europe was reserved for authorities, transport and for private purposes only to a few wealthy people until the Second World War . In the mid-1930s, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of a Volkswagen , later the VW Beetle . However, the war delayed mass motorization, which was finally realized in Western Europe in the 1950s and a few years later in Eastern Europe. In the course of climatological and urban political difficulties, a limitation of individual traffic has been discussed since the 1970s . In other countries such as China there has not yet been any mass motorization.

Reduction of exhaust emissions

With increasing traffic density , a problem with the internal combustion engine emerged that had previously not played a role - the environmental pollution from exhaust gases. The smoke development of vehicles with diesel engines was one of the first emissions problems that were addressed with emissions standards . First, a mandatory smoke density test was enacted in Belgium in 1959 . Limits for smoke density measurement were set in West Germany in 1961, and similar measures were taken in many other countries at that time. The objective was initially to avoid excessive smoke development through correct maintenance of diesel vehicles in operation. Bills to limit carbon monoxide , hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in gasoline engines were first published in 1960 in the US state of California , but they were not put into practice until years later. California was already struggling with heavy air pollution in metropolitan areas in the 1930s , which was favored by its geographic location. In Germany, the first smog crisis occurred in 1962 in the Ruhr area . In Europe, the first transnational regulation was made in 1970 within the EC, at least for limit values ​​for carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, which was gradually tightened and from 1977 also included limit values ​​for nitrogen oxides. The partly still used two-stroke engine was displaced from the automotive sector at that time because of its particularly high hydrocarbon emissions. A special case was the automobile construction of the GDR , where cars with two-stroke engines were produced until 1990. The oil price crisis of 1973 intensified (more for economic reasons) efforts to build cars with the lowest possible fuel consumption. From the 1980s, the pollutant emissions of the four-stroke gasoline engine were taken into account by using an exhaust gas catalytic converter (KAT) (unregulated KATs for diesel engines from 1990). In Germany, the first cars with KAT were registered from 1985, in the following years new cars were increasingly equipped with KAT, before an EU- wide KAT was set for all new cars with petrol engines from 1993 . Since the KATs are damaged by tetraethyl lead, unleaded petrol was introduced around the same time , which also reduced pollution. Since 2000, leaded petrol has been banned across the EU.

In the period that followed, the focus was again on the development of exhaust gases from the diesel engine . From the year 2000 soot particle filters became widespread, and from 2007 they received tax subsidies in Germany. From 2015, the diesel engine, which compared to the gasoline engine has a lower fuel consumption and a higher degree of efficiency , came under fundamental criticism in the course of the emissions scandal . Above all, the nitrogen oxide emissions revealed themselves in driving practice to be significantly higher than the test values ​​would suggest. The image damage, but also driving bans for diesel vehicles that were partially imposed from 2018 onwards, have since led to a declining market share of passenger cars with diesel engines.

In 2009, the environmental bonus was supposed to accelerate the scrapping of older cars with poor emissions, but the effect of the bonus in terms of environmental protection is considered controversial. The environmental zones introduced in 2007 are also subject to a controversial debate . Driving bans were previously imposed for a limited time in the event of heavy smog . Since fuel consumption increases disproportionately to speed at higher speeds due to the exponentially increasing air resistance, the non-existent speed limit on German autobahns has long been a controversial issue in connection with exhaust emissions .

Euro standards for exhaust gases were introduced in 1992 and have been gradually tightened since then. They have to be met by new vehicles. Used vehicles that do not meet the current standard may be subject to tax disadvantages and driving bans. Stricter emission standards have in some cases resulted in the disappearance of certain technologies. For example, the introduction of the Euro4 standard for mopeds in 2016 resulted in the sale of such vehicles with two-stroke engines , which were still widespread until then.

In recent years, the problem of global warming has come to the fore, and with it the emission of carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) , which was previously neglected . Based on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol , targets have since been developed to reduce these emissions, which are to be achieved with defined limit values ​​and tax means. In the automotive sector, this is not based on emissions standards , but on fleet consumption . As with the introduction of the KAT, political intervention was inevitable due to a lack of initiative by the car manufacturers - in 2007 the Porsche Development Board claimed that if the manufacturer- related fleet emissions of 130 grams per kilometer were to become law, then Porsche would no longer exist after 2008. One measure in this sense is the introduction of the E10 fuel .

The technical advances in the field of engine technology and lightweight construction could theoretically make a very large contribution to reducing exhaust emissions. In practice, however, the effect is almost offset by ever more extensive comfort equipment, safety systems and the incessantly increasing engine power of the vehicles produced.

The never-ending chain of ever more stringent measures to reduce emissions from internal combustion engines in automobile construction is currently leading to a renaissance of the electric car and the promotion of fuel cells and hybrid drives on the one hand, and to intensified discussions about possible alternatives to motorized individual transport on the other, see also soft mobility , traffic turnaround , Environmental association .

Digitization and autonomous driving

In the course of the 1990s, digital technology found its way into automobiles. Since then, the integration of information electronics ( navigation systems , entertainment media for passengers, etc.), optimization of engine control and the introduction of driver assistance systems , steer-by-wire / brake-by-wire and even autonomous driving have been the main focus .

In May 2014, Google announced that 100 test vehicles would be built in 2015 that would do without the steering wheel, brakes and accelerator. The vehicles should change into private ownership and not serve as driverless taxis or transport capsules. In a video, Google shows how private individuals test the prototype. Google thus combines the three principles of electric cars, autonomous driving and car sharing (see also Autonomous Land Vehicle ). In 2016, Google decided not to continue development.

In July 2016, BMW announced an alliance with Intel and Mobileye with the aim of introducing a self-driving vehicle into series production in 2021 .

General Motors is planning to test the first unmanned cars from 2015 and in series production from 2018.

Tesla Inc plans to sell cars from 2019 ^[obsolete] that should be capable of autonomous driving (Level 5 SAE - the car can drive without people on board).

Development in the Eastern Bloc states until 1989/1990

A VW transporter (Genex catalog 1986)

Generally

After the outbreak of the Cold War , the "automotive evolution" in the developed industrial countries of the East and West proceeded in a similar way until the mid-1960s. However , the automobile industry in the Comecon or Comecon area did not keep pace with the rapid increase in the variety of models, equipment, engine power and technical innovation in the developed industrial countries of capitalist foreign countries . The automotive industry in China , which only began in 1949, developed even more slowly . The vehicle types developed in-house, such as e.g. B. the Trabant P 50 or the Wartburg 311 from GDR production, the Škoda 1000 MB , the Syrena , the GAZ-M21 "Wolga" and GAZ-24 "Wolga" ("Mercedes of the East"), as well as various representative limousines such as the Tatra 603 ( Czechoslovakia ) and the GAZ-13 "Chaika" . The Moskvich-412 was valued as an export good in Western Europe for a long time because of its robustness . For the same reason, the Lada Niva off-road vehicle is experiencing an international success story on both sides of the Iron Curtain , which has continued since the pilot series was launched in 1976 until today.

Eastern bloc states without their own automobile industry often sought, like less developed capitalist countries, the license production of prototypes from established manufacturers. There were particularly frequent collaborations with Fiat . At the end of the 1950s, the production of Fiat licensed buildings under the Zastava brand began in Yugoslavia . Polski Fiat followed in the VR Poland at the end of the 1960s . Romania entered the automotive industry at the same time through license production of the Renault 8 , later the Renault 12 as the Dacia 1300 . The production of the Shiguli (Lada) in Tolyatti through a license for the Fiat 124 by the Soviet Union was particularly formative for the streetscape of the Eastern Bloc countries . The engine of the Moskvich-412 was structurally based on the then innovative BMW M10 series. In contrast to the GDR, many Eastern Bloc countries also launched new vehicle models in the 1970s and 80s, including Lada Samara , Škoda Favorit , Moskvich Aleko , Tawria and FSO Polonez .

Availability of cars in the GDR

→ Main article : Availability of cars in the GDR

Technical innovations

Some items in the following list are not adequately supported by supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

It is not defined what “important” means - electric windows? The H shift gate? The glass roof?

The technology of the automobile is constantly evolving. Technical innovations and their adoption in series production led to the fact that the first vehicles developed into today's automobiles, on which high expectations are placed in the areas of safety, comfort, economy, environmental friendliness, performance and design.

Technical innovations were for example:

• 1769: front-wheel drive ( Nicholas Cugnot ; 1877 Selden Road Engine )
• 1865: Étienne Lenoir successfully uses an internal combustion engine to drive a vehicle for the first time and thus covers a greater distance.
• 1761 1816: knuckle - steering , invented in 1761 by Erasmus Darwin , patented in 1816 by Georg Lankensperger , 1873 by Amédée Bollée and 1891 by Carl Benz .
• 1873: individually suspended front wheels, l'Obéissante by Amédée Bollée
• 1877: Cardan drive on a motor vehicle ( Amédée Bollée La Mancelle )
• 1886: Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz use a gasoline engine to drive a vehicle for the first time . This will be the dominant combination for over 100 years
• 1888: The first known German electric car was built in 1888 by the A. Flocken machine factory in Coburg . It is believed that this four-wheeled electric car was the world's first electrically powered passenger car.
• 1891: "Système Panhard" : arrangement of gasoline engine in front, transmission behind; Rear-wheel drive with chains ( Émile Levassor for Panhard & Levassor # «Système Panhard» )
• 1893: De-Dion axis , by Charles-Armand Trépardoux for De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux
• 1897: the "fast running" single-cylinder engine goes into series production in the De Dion Bouton motor tricycle
• 1899: Hybrid drive (electric and combustion engine); La Cuadra in Spain and Pieper in Belgium. Series production 1916–1923 ( Woods Dual Power (USA))
• 1899: H-gate gears ( Packard model A )
• 1905: Bumper as an accessory Simms-Welbeck . In general, it did not gain acceptance until the 1920s.
• 1908: Compressor to increase the performance of a car (Great Chadwick Six)
• 1910: V8 engine in series ( De Dion-Bouton cars and trucks, Renault trucks); USA 1914 ( Northway for Cadillac )
• 1911: rear-view mirror (racing driver Ray Harroun / Marmon )
• 1914: electric starter in series ( Charles Kettering / Delco for Cadillac ); before that there were pneumatic systems
• 1914: hydraulic braking system ( Fred Duesenberg ); in series from 1920 ( Lockheed for Duesenberg and Kenworthy )
• 1914: Central locking ( Scripps-Booth )
• 1915: All-wheel drive in large-scale production ( Jeffery Quad ); 1949 SUV with AWD ( Willys Jeep Station Wagon ), 1973 passenger car with AWD ( Subaru Leone Station Wagon AWD )
• 1915: All-wheel steering in large-scale production ( Jeffery Quad )
• 1915: V12 engine in series ( Packard Twin Six )
• 1917: The engine thermometer can be read from the driver's seat. ( Boyce MotoMeter )
• 1918: body structure made of steel ( Briggs )
• 1923: truck with diesel engine
• 1924: Front-wheel drive in passenger car series ( Tracta )
• 1929: V16 engine in series ( Cadillac V16 )
• 1933: automatic transmission ( Reo Royale ); larger distribution from 1940 ( Hydramatic from General Motors )
• 1936: first passenger car with diesel engine in series production Mercedes-Benz W 138 ( Auburn - Cummins 1935)
• 1941: Air conditioning in series (developed by Henney Motor Company for Packard )
• 1941: Electric windows ( Lincoln Continental )
• 1948: Radial tires (belt tires) come onto the market
• 1948: removable glass roof ( Gordon Buehrig ) in Tasco of The American Sports Car Co. in 1965 as a one-piece Targa roof in a Porsche 911 Targa , two-piece from 1968 T-Top ( Chevrolet Corvette C3 )
• 1951: Petrol direct injection in cars ( Gutbrod Superior / Goliath GP 700 Sport )
• 1951: Power steering in series ( Chrysler )
• 1952: Brake booster (negative pressure, Bendix Corporation )
• 1963: First car with a rotary engine (rotary piston engine): NSU Wankel Spider
• 1963: first SUV in series ( Jeep Wagoneer )
• 1966: mechanical anti-lock braking system (ABS) ( Jensen FF ); 1969 electronic (rear wheels, Lincoln Continental Mark III ), 1978 analog electronic on all wheels in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class
• 1967: D-Jetronic ( VW 1600 LE / TLE )
• 1974: General Motors automotive catalytic converters for gasoline engines
• 1974: Airbag in mass production ( General Motors )
• 1980: Remote control of the central locking system ( Renault Fuego )
• 1982: Parking aid ( Toyota Corona )
• 1987: Diesel direct injection ( Fiat Croma 1.9 Tdid)
• 1990: Catalytic converters for diesel engines
• 1990: First production car with a factory-installed GPS navigation system: Mazda Eunos Cosmo
• 1995: Electronic Stability Program (ESP)
• 2000: various driver assistance systems

See also

• Portal: car and motorcycle
• Alternative drive technology
• Automotive design
• Automobile nicknames
• Automobile historical society
• Automotive industry
• Development of petrol
• particulate matter
• Fordism
• History of China's Automobile Industry
• List of automobile brands
• Low energy vehicle
• means of transport
• Traffic jam
• Motor vehicle adaptation for the physically handicapped
• Road safety history
• Fear of driving
• Euro NCAP
• Antique car

Remarks

1. ↑ The name “Trambuswagen” probably goes back to a forward control bus from Büssing that was presented under this name in 1929.
2. ↑ Systems with an electric or steam motor on each wheel since the 1890s

literature

• Giles Chapman (Ed.): The Auto Book. The big chronicle with over 1200 models. German translation: Burkhard Schäfer. Dorling Kindersley, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8310-2206-9 .
• Erik Eckermann: Car and body: history - production - design - from the carriage to the passenger car. 2nd Edition. Springer Vieweg, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-658-07425-8 .
• Dietmar Fack: Automobile, traffic and education. Motorization and Socialization Between Acceleration and Adaptation 1885–1945. Leske + Budrich Verlag, Opladen 2000, ISBN 3-8100-2386-8 .
• Richard von Frankenberg, Marco Matteucci: History of the Automobile. Sigloch, Künzelsau 1973, ISBN 3-89393-197-X .
• Sylvia Hamberger, Peter M. Bode, Wolfgang Zängl: Car nightmare. A hundred year old invention and its consequences. (= Companion book to the exhibition of the same name: nightmare car, green broken, to be or not to be: to be or not to be. The industrial destruction of nature ). Raben Verlag von Wittern, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-922696-46-5 .
• Björn Herrmann: West Cars in the GDR , 79 octane, Zettlitz 2019, ISBN 978-3-00-062003-4
• Beverly Rae Kimes : Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680-1431-X . (English)
• Beverly Rae Kimes (Ed.), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1996, ISBN 0-87341-428-4 . (English)
• Eberhard Kittler : German cars. Volume 5: Audi, BMW, Smart, VW and small series - since 1990. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-613-02128-5 .
• Eberhard Kittler: German cars. Volume 6: Mercedes, Ford, Opel and Porsche - since 1990. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-613-02052-1 .
• Johann-Günther König : The history of the automobile. Reclam, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-15-020214-2 .
• Theodor Lehmbeck: The book from the car: construction and operation of the automobile. Reprint of the edition from 1920. Heel, Königswinter 2014, ISBN 978-3-86852-944-9 .
• Reinhard Lintelmann: 1000 automobiles. History - classic - technology. (The most famous classic cars from 1886 to 1975). Naumann & Göbel, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-625-10543-8 .
• Christoph Maria Merki : The bumpy triumph of the automobile 1895–1930. For the motorization of road traffic in France, Germany and Switzerland. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99479-5 .
• Kurt Möser: History of the car. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-593-36575-8 .
• Hans-Otto Neubauer (Hrsg.): Chronicle of the automobile. Chronik Verlag in Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1994, ISBN 3-570-14338-4 .
• Werner Oswald : German cars. Volume 2. 1920-1945. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-87943-519-7 .
• Werner Oswald: German cars. Volume 3: Ford, Opel and Volkswagen - 1945–1990. 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02116-1 .
• Werner Oswald: German cars. Volume 4: Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and others - 1945–1990. 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02131-5 .
• Wolfgang Sachs : The love for the automobile. A look back into the history of our desires. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-498-06166-6 .
• Halwart Schrader : German cars. Volume 1. 1886-1920. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-02211-7 .
• Wolfgang Vogel: Advice for buying motor vehicles and wheels. Official automobile book of the DTCU (German Touring Club Union). Reprint of the 2nd edition from 1913. Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2016, ISBN 978-3-942153-18-8 .
• Daniela Zenone: The automobile in Italian futurism and fascism. Its aesthetic and political importance. WZB, research focus technology, work, environment, Berlin 2002, DNB 96737555X ; ssoar.info (PDF)
• Christian Zentner : Zentner's illustrated chronicle - German automobiles from 1945 to today. Otus, St. Gallen 2007, ISBN 978-3-907200-53-7 .

Web links

Commons : automobile  album with pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Automobile  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wikisource: Automotive  Sources and Full Texts

• Carl Benz - unwavering visionary and ingenious inventor on the website of the city of Mannheim
• Car prices in the European Union as of January 1, 2011. (PDF; 1.6 MB) European Commission

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerald Görmer: The origin of the car. Munich 2008.
2. ^ National Automobile Museum (ed.): The Greatest Cars of the Century. Edition Belles Terres, Strasbourg 2005, ISBN 2-913231-12-8 , p. 130.
3. ↑ Quoted from G. Schaetzel, Königlicher Postoffizial: Motor-Posten. Technology and performance of today's self-drive systems and their usability for public transport. Published by R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1901.
4. ↑ Nicolas Vallari painted the automobile. It can be found in the Finnish National Museum as inventory NM 79077. According to the representation, the car was decorated with depictions of Cupid and Venus.
5. ↑ Reinhard Seiffert: The era of Gottlieb Daimler. Springer-Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-91889-1 , p. 35 ( limited preview in Google book search).
6. ↑ On the history of the motor vehicle . In: Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift . 2/1949, p. 40.
7. ↑ From the history of the development of the automobile. In: Automotive Technology . 4/1954, p. 97.
8. ↑ A. Bird, JWEDS Montagu of Beaulieu: Steam Cars, 1770-1970. London 1971, ISBN 0-304-93707-X , p. 52.
9. ↑ A century of automotive technology - commercial vehicles. VDI-Verlag, 1987, ISBN 3-18-400656-6 , pp. 164, 174, 175.
10. ↑ A century of automotive technology - passenger cars. VDI Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-18-400620-4 , p. 368.
11. ↑ Notes and records. of the Royal Society of London, 2002 (JSTOR)
12. ↑ Pierre Souvestre: Histoire de l'automobile. Paris 1907.
13. ↑ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, p. 41.
14. ↑ From the history of the development of the automobile. In: Automotive Technology. 4/1954, p. 97.
15. ^ Bertha Benz Memorial Route . bertha-benz.de
16. ↑ ingenieur.de
17. ↑ Spektrum.de
18. ↑ Heilmann (PDF; 2.1 MB) in the French National Archives, p. 1: Historique.
19. ^ Bird: De Dion Bouton - First Automobile Giant. 1971, cover text (back).
20. ↑ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, p. 89.
21. ↑ Motor vehicle . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894-1896, supplement volume 1897, pp. 780-782.
22. ^ Motor Carriages. In: Aberdeen Weekly Journal , December 19, 1895. Quote translated from English.
23. ↑ See, for example, Automobile Notes. In: The Times , Nov. 6, 1906, p. 16.
24. ↑ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, p. 415.
25. ↑ Raghuram Rajan, Rodney Ramcharan: The Anatomy of a Credit Crisis: The Boom and Bust in Farm Land Prices in the United States in the 1920s. In: American Economic Review . Volume 105, No. 4, April 2015, pp. 1439-1477.
26. ↑ Cynthia Clark Northrup (Ed.): The American Economy: Essays and primary source documents. ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-866-3 , pp. 327-328.
27. ^ Commercial Bulletin, Government of Palestine, 1934.
28. ↑ Leon Dolm: The Automobile in Palestine. Engineering thesis, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 1934.
29. ↑ Extract from the Swedish laws and regulations on the use of motor vehicles. (in German), Hof-Buchdruckerei, Stockholm 1916, p. 5 ff. (§ 13 and 14).
30. ↑ Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels. 2005, hardcover, p. 169.
31. ↑ Horse handlebar or horse flayer? In: New Time . 1st year, issue 127, December 18, 1945, p. 3.
32. ↑ December 27 (1921). In: Berlin calendar of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ; accessed on January 24, 2021
33. ↑ For comparison: 161,000 cars were registered in Germany in 1925. (Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, 1926, p. 103, quoted from: Richard Vahrenkamp: The logistic revolution: The rise of logistics in the mass consumer society - Campus Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. / New York 2011, ISBN 978-3- 593-39215-8 , p. 155.)
34. ↑ Volvo's voluntary speed limit Anyone who brakes understands ; accessed May 28, 2021
35. ↑ ^{a b c} International development trends in automobile construction - 1965 review of the year . In: Motor vehicle technology . 3/1966, pp. 82-88.
36. ^ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark: Standard Catalog of American Automobiles. 1996, p. 10.
37. ↑ The passenger car of tomorrow. In: Automotive Technology. 10/1955, p. 357.
38. ↑ On the problem of the trambus construction. In: Automotive Technology. 8/1960, pp. 313-316.
39. ↑ Experience with passenger cars in trambus design. In: Automotive Technology. 5/1959, pp. 192-195.
40. ↑ Realities and wrong turns in small car construction. In: Automotive Technology. 5/1954, pp. 145-150 and 6/1954, pp. 180-186.
41. ↑ Construction trends in micro and small car construction. In: Automotive Technology. 1/1956, pp. 11-15.
42. ↑ Plastics are not substitutes. In: Automotive Technology. 7/1957, p. 267.
43. ↑ Everything in the paint. In: Oldtimer Markt . 8/2013, pp. 12-21.
44. ↑ Legal regulations for motor vehicle exhaust fumes in countries with high traffic density . In: Automotive Technology . No. 5/1965 , p. 168-170 .
45. ↑ Environment-friendly car: Isn't it all right? In: Der Spiegel . No. 39 , 1984 ( online ).
46. ^ Alleged ruin of Porsche through emission reduction, in 2008
47. ↑ Message on heise.de
48. ↑ Google presents its robot electric car
49. ↑ Electromobile presented: The Google ball. Spiegel Online , May 28, 2014.
50. ↑ Andreas Wilkens: Google is not developing autonomous cars without a steering wheel for the time being. In: heise.de. December 13, 2016. Retrieved July 29, 2018 . 
51. ↑ Roman Domes: BMW alliance with Intel and Mobileye: first self-driving car comes in 2021. In: auto-motor-und-sport.de. Retrieved July 2, 2016 . 
52. ↑ Live Webcast From Mobileye Press Event. In: mobileye.com. Retrieved July 2, 2016 . 
53. ↑ Drivers will be superfluous from 2018. Spiegel Online , January 7, 2008.
54. ↑ CES: General Motors plans cars without human drivers. golem.de
55. ^ Automated Driving. (PDF) (No longer available online.) SAE International, archived from the original on September 3, 2017 ; accessed on September 6, 2018 . 
56. ↑ motorauthority.com
57. ↑ electrek.co
58. ↑ Heiko Prengel: These 10 Eastern Classic Cars are the next big thing . Welt Online , October 17, 2016; accessed January 27, 2021
59. ^ Ralf Kunkel, Christian Suhr: German cars, all passenger cars and commercial vehicles of the GDR . 1st edition. Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03151-7 .
60. ↑ Charged! Electromobility between desire and reality. 1st edition. Deutsches Museum Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3-940396-40-2 .
61. ↑ Halwart Schrader: Flakes. In: German Cars 1885–1920 . Volume 1. First edition. 2002, p. 182.
62. ^ Biography of Charles-Armand Trépardoux. Arts et Métiers Foundation.
63. ^ Beverly Rae Kimes: Packard, A History of the Motor Car and the Company. General Edition (1978), Automobile Quarterly, ISBN 0-915038-11-0 , pp. 32-35.
64. ↑ 1899 Packard Model A . Packard info
65. ↑ hemmings.com
66. ↑ TASCO prototype. conceptcarz.com
67. ↑ coachbuilt.com Derham at coachbuilt.com.
68. ↑ autodoc.de
69. ↑ News - The latest in technology . In: Auto, Motor & Sport. Issue 11/1982, p. 62
70. ↑ Frank Wald: Fiat Multijet-Diesel Italians put pressure on. In: Spiegel Online . July 8, 2004, accessed September 6, 2018 . 
71. ↑ motortrend.com