Who invented the first motor powered car?

Answer 1

The answer to this depends on what you call a "car". The first automobiles were not gasoline powered; they used steam as the means for locomotion. Way back in France in 1769, even before Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution, a gentleman by the name of Nicolas Cugnot devised a steam-powered conveyance called the fardier à vapeur. It had three wheels with a coach assembly in the middle, where one or more persons could ride, and a huge boiler mounted on the front. Unfortunately, the technology of the day being what it was, the vehicle had more drawbacks than benefits, and it never caught on.
The next attempt at a motorized vehicle came in Scotland, around 1830. Robert Anderson invented the first electric "car" - actually a horse-drawn carriage modified to fit the electric motor. Power was supplied by batteries carried on board, but the batteries were not rechargeable. By 1881 several improvements in the batteries had been made, and the electric car was catching on - amazing how things can come full circle, isn't it?
In 1885 Gottleib Daimler invented the basis of today's gas-powered engine, and two years later patented the carburetor. In 1886 another German, Karl Benz, received a patent for a gas-powered automobile. In 1887, Nicolaus Otto, yet another German, received a patent for a four-stroke, gas-powered motor. These were the primary developments that paved the way for today's gas-powered vehicles, along with Henry Ford's invention of assembly line production that lowered the price so that nearly everyone could own a car.