Few of the very first internal combustion-engined cars still exist, but the vehicle that predates those pioneer cars by a full century is Cugnot’s steam-powered fardier à vapeur, the first ever self-propelled vehicle.

A small version of the three-wheeled fardier à vapeur (a fardier being a horse-drawn cart) is known to have run in 1769. The larger version that followed was designed to carry four tons and to achieve nearly 5mph, although it’s doubtful it quite managed that. The full-size fardier à vapeur still exists, thanks to King Louis XV who in 1772 granted Cugnot a pension and arranged for the fardier à vapeur to be kept at the Arsenal. It stayed there until 1800, when it was moved to the Conservatoire
National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, where it’s still on show today.

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