Which company produced the first gasoline-powered automobile?

Benz & Cie. produced the first gasoline-powered automobile, Carl Benz’s Patent-Motorwagen.

Benz completed the three-wheeled vehicle in 1885 and filed the decisive German patent on January 29, 1886. Patent DRP 37435 described a vehicle powered by a gasoline-fueled internal-combustion engine, and the machine is widely regarded as the first practical modern automobile and the first automobile put into production.

The car used a rear-mounted, single-cylinder, four-stroke engine producing about 0.75 hp. It had a tubular steel frame, wire-spoked wheels, differential gearing, electrical ignition, and a belt-driven transmission. Benz’s company, originally founded as the Mannheim-based Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik, became commonly known as Benz & Cie.

The company name is sometimes confused with Daimler because Gottlieb Daimler was developing gasoline engines at roughly the same time. Steam-powered road vehicles and earlier experimental combustion vehicles also existed, so the claim refers to the first practical, production-oriented gasoline automobile—not every self-propelled road experiment.