>> Credit to that .. Carl Benz, .. patent in 1886.
> date of 1884 for a production .. two years before the Benz patent.
The car was produced in 1885, the patent was granted in 1886.
The way I understood the OP's "The original cars were electric..." comment was that these electric cars (plural!) were dominant for some time until they were replaced quite some time later ("over 20 years before the Ford Model T") by cars with internal combustion engines.
As far as I know, that didn't happen. Electric cars and cars with internal combustion engines happened essentially simultaneously, with steam a century earlier (1769). From the Wikipedia article the OP quoted (section Golden age):
"In the United States by the turn of the century, 40 percent of automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline. "
So even during the "golden age", >60% of cars were not electric. I have to admit I was surprised that steam-powered cars were that widespread.
> date of 1884 for a production .. two years before the Benz patent.
The car was produced in 1885, the patent was granted in 1886.
The way I understood the OP's "The original cars were electric..." comment was that these electric cars (plural!) were dominant for some time until they were replaced quite some time later ("over 20 years before the Ford Model T") by cars with internal combustion engines.
As far as I know, that didn't happen. Electric cars and cars with internal combustion engines happened essentially simultaneously, with steam a century earlier (1769). From the Wikipedia article the OP quoted (section Golden age):
"In the United States by the turn of the century, 40 percent of automobiles were powered by steam, 38 percent by electricity, and 22 percent by gasoline. "
So even during the "golden age", >60% of cars were not electric. I have to admit I was surprised that steam-powered cars were that widespread.