Pioneer inventors

Although German engineer Karl Benz, the inventor of numerous car-related technologies, is generally regarded as the inventor of the modern automobile when he received a German patent in 1886, American George B. Selden filed for a patent on May 8, 1879. His application included not only the engine but its use in a 4-wheeled car. Mr. Selden then filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process resulting in a delay of 16 years before the US patent 549160
 was granted on November 5, 1895. The four-stroke petrol (gasoline) internal combustion engine that constitutes the most prevalent form of modern automotive propulsion is a creation of German inventor Nikolaus Otto. The similar four-stroke diesel engine was also invented by a German, Rudolf Diesel. The hydrogen fuel cell, one of the technologies hailed as a replacement for gasoline as an energy source for cars, was discovered in principle by yet another German, Christian Friedrich Schönbein, in 1838. The battery electric car owes its beginnings to Hungarian Ányos Jedlik, one of the inventors of the electric motor, and Gaston Planté, who invented the lead-acid battery in 1859.