People used carts pulled by horses or other animals for more than 5000 years before the first self-propelled vehicles, steam-powered carriages, were built. The age of the car really started with the development of the internal combustion engine in the late 19th century. Early cars were difficult to operate and were individually hand-built, which made them very expensive. The introduction of cheap, mass-produced cars in the early 20th century quickly made motoring a popular activity.

Karl Benz

Cars did not become a practical way to travel until petrol engines were invented in the 1880s. In 1885, the German engineer Karl Benz successfully fitted a single-cylinder petrol engine to a three-wheeled tricycle. The water-cooled engine was fixed under the seat. The rear wheels were connected to it by belts and bicycle chains. It could reach speeds of 15 km/h (9 mph).

Gottlieb Daimler

In 1885, a few months before Benz produced his motor-car, another German engineer, Gottlieb Daimler, attached a petrol engine to a wooden-framed bicycle. His 17-year-old son Paul rode the world’s first motor vehicle about 17 kilometres (11 miles) around the streets of Cannstatt, Germany. During the trip, the saddle, fitted too close to the top of the engine, burst into flames. In 1886, Daimler built the first four-wheeled petrol car, a "horseless carriage".

Panhard-Levassor car

In 1890, two French machine toolmakers, René Panhard and Emile Levassor, began making cars using Daimler engines. Their 1891 model could be described as the first modern car. Fitted beneath a square bonnet at the front, its engine was connected to the rear wheels by a clutch and gears. There was also a radiator at the front to cool the engine. They added a steering wheel in 1894.

Cars of the early 1900s

Other modern devices made their first appearances in early French designs: hollow rubber tyres were first used on a 1895 Peugeot and a propeller shaft replaced chain drive in the first Renault built in 1898. By the beginning of the 1900s, modern kinds of engine, tyre, gears and steering had been invented. The first car to include them all was the Mercedes 35 hp, first produced in 1901 by the German company Daimler. Early cars were tricky to operate, slow and hand-built, which made them expensive. The Mercedes was a luxury car that only the very rich could afford.

Ford Model T

The Ford Model T, nicknamed the “Tin Lizzie”, was designed by the American Henry Ford. Production began in 1908. Previous cars had been made individually, but in Ford’s factory a large number of cars were put together at the same time by a team of workers. This way, cars could be produced faster and more cheaply. The Model T was the first inexpensive car.