INVENTION OF AUTOMOBILES
Till now we have learnt how wheel was
used in carts and horse powered carriages for transportation of goods
and people. Engineers kept on improving the Horse Carriage design bit
by bit. Parallely, man was working on a system that could be self
propelled, meaning that the system could be run without any man or animal force required for
moving it.
In the year 1672 the very first such
model was developed in the form of a toy. This was actually a steam
engine. In this the power of steam was used to provide momentum to
the toy. Further improvements continued in various parts of the
world. Then in the year 1806, the first cars powered by an internal
combustion engine appeared. The fuel used for running this was ‘fuel
gas’ instead of ‘steam’. Of course, the process of using Fuel
Gas is different than the process required for using Steam. Steam
engine requires ‘External combustion’, whereas, fuel gas uses the
principle of ‘Internal Combustion’. We shall study this in detail
later. Meanwhile, engineers continued to improve designs till the
year 1885 when the first modern gasoline- or petrol-fueled engine was
developed in Europe. It is important to note that inventions in
science and technology can not often be used immediately by general
public. One reason is that the cost of developing new technology is
very high. Also, the first models usually do not have any comfort
features.
INVENTION OF AUTOMOBILES (POST WORLD
WAR II)
The development in the Automobile
sector before World War II, now we will concentrate on post World War
II. Automobile Industry started on rapid modernization in the 50s and
60s. Many new models of cars were introduced like Edsel, Chevrolet
etc. In USA, road network was built after the second War. This road
network was very modern with long highways stretching across the
length and breadth of the country. It is good to note that USA has a
very big land mass and vast geography. This allows open and wide
roads to be built. On these roads models like the Beetle do appear
very tiny! The Big Three of the car industry namely General Motors,
Ford & Chrysler set about to design big fast moving cars for the
American roads. Edsel, Buick, Pontiac Firebird, Chevrolet Impala etc
were some of the big cars that came on American highways in the 50s
and 60s.It may also be noted that these models used large amounts of
petrol or gasoline as it is called in US. But, petrol consumption was
not the main issue in those happy days. So, each car maker was
competing with the other in making bigger & bigger designs with
more luxuries added for comfort. All this made owning and maintaining
a car quite costly. Still, more and more Americans were buying these
models. One very popular model from FORD was named ‘MUSTANG’.
Meanwhile, quietly but with determination, Japan was developing cars
for marketing worldwide, mainly in the USA. Actually, after the
devastation of their country during the WW II, several Japanese
companies came into existence like Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki
etc. Some of these like Mazda, were using American Technology. But,
these companies were also developing their own Research capabilities.
As a result when the 1973 oil crisis occurred, these companies were
very well positioned to roll out smaller, compact, economical models
in USA. Since then, companies like Toyota, Honda have been steadily
increasing their market presence worldwide. The modern era is
normally defined as the 25 years before the current year. However,
there are some technical and design aspects that differentiate modern
cars from antiques. Without considering the future of the car, the
modern era has been one of increasing standardisation, platform
sharing, and computer-aided design.
Years of new modal presentation
- 1966 – present Toyota Corolla – a
simple small Japanese saloon/sedan that has come to be the
best-selling car of all time.
- 1970 – present Range Rover – the
first take on the combination of luxury and four-wheel drive utility,
the original 'SUV'. Such was the popularity of the original Range
Rover Classic, that a new model was not brought out until 1994.
- 1973 – present Mercedes-Benz S-Class
– electronic Anti-lock Braking System, supplemental restraint
airbags, seat belt pretensioners, and electronic traction control
systems all made their debut on the S Class. These features would
later become standard throughout the car industry.
- 1975 – present BMW 3 Series – the 3
Series has been on the Car and Driver magazine's annual
Ten Best list 17 times, making it the longest running entry.
- 1977– present Honda Accord
saloon/sedan – this Japanese sedan became the most popular car in
the United States in the 1990s, pushing the Ford Taurus aside, and
setting the stage for today's upscale Asian sedans.
- 1981–1989 Dodge Aries and Plymouth
Reliant – the "K-cars" that saved Chrysler as a major
manufacturer. These models were some of the first successful American
front-wheel drive, fuel-efficient compact cars.
- 1983 – present Chrysler minivans –
the two-box minivan design nearly pushed the station wagon out of the
market, and presaged today's crossover SUVs.
- 1984 – present Renault Espace –
first mass one-volume car of noncommercial MPV class.
- 1986 – present Ford Taurus – this
mid-sized front-wheel drive sedan with modern computer assisted design
dominated the American market in the late 1980s, and created a design
revolution in North America.
- 1989 –1999 Pontiac Trans Sport –
was one the first of the one box cars.
- 1997 – present Toyota Prius –
launched in the Japanese market, in September 2010 reached worldwide
cumulative sales of 2.0 million units, becoming the most iconic
hybrid electric vehicle in the world.
- 1997 – present Toyota Prius –
launched in the Japanese market, in September 2010 reached worldwide
cumulative sales of 2.0 million units, becoming the most iconic
hybrid electric vehicle in the world.
- 1998 – present Ford Focus – one of
the most popular hatchbacks across the globe, that is also one of
Ford's best selling world cars.
- 2008 – present – Tata Nano – The
Tata Nano is an inexpensive( 100,000), rear-engine, four passenger
city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed
primarily at the Indian domestic market.
- 2010 – present, Nissan Leaf and
Chevrolet Volt – an all-electric car and a plug-in hybrid
correspondingly, were launched in the U.S. and Japanese markets in
December 2010, becoming the first mass production vehicles of their
kind.
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