decars1-2, Exercise 3: The French makers

Model answer (check the details):

How they fit: French firms, notably Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot, took up the new engines around 1890, with Panhard obtaining rights to build Daimler engines. In the 1890s French makers built more cars than German ones, and early motor racing was largely French. They also developed the layout that became standard, with the engine in front.

Why they complicate the claim: German engineers (Benz, Daimler, Maybach) supplied the key technology of the petrol-engined car, but French companies led its first commercial production and much of its design development. Cars were an international invention built on German engines and French production, with contributions from Austria, Belgium and the United States as well.

Careful sentence: "The petrol-engined car was invented in Germany in the 1880s, and the first large car industry grew up in France in the 1890s."