Car

Epic card · No. 8635

A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat 1–8 people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are over 1.6 billion cars in use worldwide as of 2025. In 1769 the French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built the first steam-powered road vehicle, a large three-wheeled dray to carry artillery pieces at walking pace. In 1808 the Swiss inventor François Isaac de Rivaz designed and constructed the first internal-combustion-powered automobile; range was limited to tens of metres by the gaseous fuel held in a large balloon. Until the late nineteenth century the only source of mechanical power for long-distance travel by land was coal in a steam engine. A notable early example of a personal steam carriage was that made in 1840 by Frank Hills of Deptford, near London. This cruised at 26 km/h (16 mph) and was used for day trips, including one of 206 km (128 miles). In France between 1873...

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