EARLY CAR MANUFACTURE

It was France rather than Germany that became the first home of car manufacture. Armand Peugeot started a business building cars based on the Daimler engines. The team of René Panhard and Emile Levassor started to make and sell cars using the Daimler engine, too. They built their first car in 1890. Panhard and Levassor made some key changes to the design of the car, some of which are still used today. The cars invented by Benz and Daimler both had engines at the rear. Panhard and Levassor moved the engine to the front and connected it to the rear wheels through a gearbox. They also added a radiator to the front—a feature you still see on most modern cars. Peugeot still makes cars today, while Panhard-Levassor became part of Citroën in 1955.