History of the Green Car Patent

1886 is widely regarded as the year modern cars were conceived. That year, Carl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen, becoming the de jure inventor of the automobile. Benz began production of the car in July of 1886. Between 1888 and 1893, 25 Benz vehicles were sold.

A couple years later, in 1896, Benz designed and patented the first internal-combustion flat engine. Leading up to the turn of the century, Benz was the largest car company in the world with 572 vehicles produced in 1899.

In parallel, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach were developing a car of their own. They incorporated Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft in 1890 and sold their first car in 1892 under the name Daimler.

Daimler died in 1900, but later that year, Maybach designed an innovative new engine called the Daimler-Mercedes. The engine produced 35 horsepower and could propel cars an impressive 53 miles per hour. 

In America, a similar automobile revolution was underway. By 1899, 30 American car manufacturers produced 2,500 cars. 485 companies would enter the industry in the next decade. In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T which would go on to revolutionize the automobile industry.

With a large and efficient production facility, Ford was able to make deliveries of a hundred reasonably priced cars a day, moving the vehicles into the mainstream. By the time the Model T was removed from production, in 1927, 15 million units had been sold and each car was priced at a mere $290 ($5,000 today). 

From 1927 to today, cars have developed greatly with the integration of more technology, but production facilities closely resemble Ford’s pioneering design.

 

In 1934, Harley Earl of Michigan filed a patent for an ornamental automobile design. His patent covered the unique shape of the car, but none of the internal mechanics.

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