The Daimler Motor-Lastwagen is the world's first truck, manufactured in the year 1896 by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft and designed by

Gottlieb Daimler Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (; 17 March 1834 – 6 March 1900) was a German engineer, industrial designer and industrialist born in Schorndorf ( Kingdom of Württemberg, a federal state of the German Confederation), in what is now Germany. He w ...

History

In 1896,

and

Wilhelm Maybach Wilhelm Maybach (; 9 February 1846 – 29 December 1929) was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers". From the late 19th ce ...

began developing a truck with a 1.06-liter two-cylinder

four-stroke engine A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...

built into the rear, which developed 4 hp (2.9 kW ). The one with hot-tube ignition and injection nozzle carburetor equipped engine was the first prototype built yet behind the rear axle and driving the rear wheels through a four-speed belt drive. The car had turntable steering and a manually operated block brake that acted on the iron tires on the rear wheels. There was also a foot-operated shoe brake on the countershaft. The vehicle was 4.5 m long and 1.5 m wide, the payload was given as 1500 kg, and the top speed was 12 kmph. Its purchase price was 5,200 marks. DMG-lastwagen-cannstatt-1896.jpg Bullerbussen.jpg, Daimler Motor Wagon, 6 HP, 1898 Daimler Motor-Geschäftswagen 1899 RSide MBMuse 9June2013 (14797103427).jpg, Daimler Motor-Geschäftswagen, 1899 (Daimler Phoenix) On 1 October 1896, Daimler sold the first truck ("Order No. 81") to the British Motor Syndicate in London. In this model, the motor had been enlarged to 1.53 liters with 6 HP (4.4 kW), was installed under the driver's seat. In the same year, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft was the first vehicle manufacturer in the world to launch a model range of various trucks that were available in four different power levels: 2.9 kW, 4.4 kW, 5.9 kW and 7.4 kW. The payloads ranged from 1.2 tons to 5 tons. According to documents from Daimler were delivered by January 1899 "ten load and thirteen Bierwagen". Customers included the Paul von Maur freight forwarder in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

and the Bohemian brewery in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, which used the Daimler motor truck as a "beer wear truck".

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History

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Further reading