Pioneers

Below is a list of 20 landmark vehicles that made breakthroughs in the engineering and manufacture of road vehicles over the last 2 centuries.

Select the links to find these vehicles on a timeline.

	Cugnot steam wagon - 1769 France First self-propelled vehicle: a steam wagon built to transport cannon for the French army and designed by Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot
	Benz - 1885/6 Germany First motor car: it used a single cylinder, four stroke internal combustion engine for power
	Oldsmobile Curved Dash - 1901 USA First mass-produced car: a two-seater runabout of which 425 were built during a three year production run
	Shillibeer omnibus - 1829 UK First public vehicle that would admit passengers on a fixed route without the requirement to book a seat in advance: George Shillibeer operated his bus between Paddington and the Bank in London
	Thornycroft steam wagon - 1896 UK First production commercial vehicle: a steam wagon with front wheel drive and rear wheel steering
	Scammell 6 wheeler - 1920 UK First production articulated commercial vehicle: Scammell's four wheel tractor unit and two wheel trailer combination remained in production, with modifications, until 1970 by which time it had been given the name 'Highwayman'
	Citroen Traction Avant - 1934 France First production car with front wheel drive to have a unitary chassis and body
	MAN diesel truck - 1924 Germany First truck to have a diesel oil engine
	Schiemann trolleycar - 1901 Germany First passenger carrying trolleybus: it operated in Bielathal, Germany and used overhead electrical current collection devised by Ernst Werner von Siemans
	Lancia Lambda - 1922 Italy First production car with independent suspension and unitary chassis and body
	Bristol Lodekka - 1949 UK First low floor bus: Bristol achieved this by offsetting the gearbox and using a drop centre rear axle to reduce the height of double-decker buses and made low bridges less of a problem
	Daimler motorcycle - 1885 Germany First motorcycle: Gottlieb Daimler and William Maybach installed an internal combustion engine in a wooden bicycle frame
	Daimler Lastwagen - 1896 Germany First purpose built commercial vehicle to use an internal combustion engine: it weighed 1200kg and could carry 1500kg, powered by a four cylinder engine driving the rear wheels
	AEC B type - 1910 UK First mass-produced bus: designed by Frank Searle for the London General Omnibus Company
	Ford Model T - 1908 USA First mass produced car built on a moving production line: production eventually totalled 16,536,075 vehicles when sales ceased in 1927, a record only beaten in 1972 by the Volkswagen Beetle
	DKW FI - 1931 Germany First range of front wheel drive cars that included transverse front engines
	Toyota Prius - 1997 Japan First mass produced petrol electric hybrid car
	Rover - 1885 UK First recognisably modern bicycle featuring a chain and rear-wheel drive
	Cannstadt Daimler - 1886 Germany First four-wheel car powered by a petrol engine
	Spyker - 1902 Netherlands First car with four-wheel drive, four-wheel braking, and a 6-cylinder engine