What was the name of Karl Benz’s 1886 automobile, widely regarded as the first practical gasoline-powered car?

Karl Benz’s 1886 automobile was the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first practical gasoline-powered car.

Benz patented the three-wheeled vehicle in Germany in January 1886. It used a rear-mounted, single-cylinder, four-stroke engine producing less than one horsepower. Unlike earlier experimental vehicles, it was designed from the beginning as a motor vehicle rather than as a horse-drawn carriage with an engine added.

The Patent-Motorwagen’s most famous early journey took place in August 1888, when Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back with her sons. Her trip demonstrated the car’s usefulness and helped expose improvements that were needed for everyday motoring.

The Daimler Stahlradwagen appeared around the same period but was a different experimental design. Benz’s three-wheeler is specifically associated with the first practical gasoline automobile patent and production effort.