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The name Daimler is used by two completely separate groups of car manufacturers. The history of both enterprises can be traced back to the German engineer Gottlieb Daimler who built the first four-wheeled car in 1889.

Cannstatt

 

This German business, initially operating at Cannstatt near Stuttgart, was the origin of the business variously known as Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft from 1890 to 1926, Daimler-Benz from 1926 to 1998, DaimlerChrysler from 1998 to 2007 and now Daimler AG or Daimler Germany, which has also manufactured vehicles since the 1890s but no cars with the name Daimler since 1908.

 

 

The British business was begun by engineer F R Simms who was Hamburg born-and-raised though of English parents. Simms was impressed by Daimler’s motor when supervising construction of an aerial cableway of Simms own design for the Bremen Exhibition in 1889. Daimler, an ardent Anglophile, had spent from autumn 1860 to summer 1862 working in England then regarded as “the motherland of technology”. Simms’ then wife was Austrian. The two men became firm friends though Simms was near thirty years younger.

 

Simms first introduced Daimler’s motors to England in 1890 to power launches. At the beginning of 1891 (agreement dated 18 February 1891) he obtained British (and British Empire) rights for the Daimler patents and he founded Simms & Co consulting engineers in June 1891. His Daimler related work was later moved into his company called The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited formed 26 May 1893.

 

On 7 June 1895 Simms told his own board he wished to form a company to be known as The Daimler Motor Company Limited (DMC) to acquire both the right to use the name Daimler and the British rights to the Daimler patents. It would manufacture Daimler motors and cars in England. In July 1895 he arranged an agency for the Daimler-powered Panhard & Levassor cars in Britain. Simms asked his good friend Daimler to be consulting engineer to the new Company.

 

Simms was approached on 15 October 1895 by H J Lawson of The British Motor Syndicate Limited. Lawson wanted to arrange the public flotation of the proposed new company (and acquire a large shareholding for his British Motor Syndicate). Welcomed by Simms the negotiations proceeded on the basis that this new company, DMC, should acquire The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern including the name and patent rights.

 

Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach had withdrawn from Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft to concentrate on cars. Now, towards the end of 1895, without Daimler and Maybach, DMG was drifting towards bankruptcy. Because agreement was needed from all the former partners to the transfer of the licences to the new English company Simms offered to pay DMG £17,100 for that transfer on the condition that Daimler and Maybach rejoined DMG. This was agreed in November 1895, when it was considered ‘no mean feat’ that Simms had managed to obtain Daimler’s signature to the proposed re-amalgamation, and the Daimler-Maybach car business re-merged with DMG’s. Daimler was appointed DMG’s General Inspector and Maybach chief Technical Director. At the same time Simms became a director of DMG but did not become a director of the London company.

 

On 14 January 1896 Lawson incorporated The Daimler Motor Company Limited. A prospectus was issued on 15 February. The subscription lists opened on 17 February and closed on 18 February, oversubscribed. It bought The Daimler Motor Syndicate Limited as a going concern. One of Lawson’s associates had for sale an empty four-storey cotton mill in Coventry which DMC promptly purchased and that is how the British motor industry came to begin in Coventry

 

In mid 1900 Frederick Simms, as a director of the German company, proposed a Daimler union between Coventry and Cannstatt but nothing came of the proposal.

 

 

Aristocrat and car dealer Emil Jellinek had legal problems selling German Daimlers in France, Panhard-Levassor also used the name as they used German Daimler engines. Jellinek proposed to Daimler Germany that he would place a large order if they would make a car for him that bore his daughter's name, Mercedes. Daimler Germany now recognized they shared their right to the name Daimler with many others and to avoid further legal action the name Mercedes was adopted in 1902 for all the cars built by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft itself. The name Daimler was last used for a German-built car in 1908.

 

The Vienna Austro-Daimler business has survived as Steyr-Daimler-Puch, despite being absorbed by General Dynamics in 2003.

 

In February 1891 Cannstatt loaned Simms a motorboat with a 2 hp engine and an extra engine and in June, named Cannstatt, it began running on the Thames from Putney. Simms had set up a London office at 49 Leadenhall Street and, later, works premises on the Thames at Eel Pie Island where Pears Soap had been making electric motors. The launch business rapidly gained momentum.

 

At the June 1895 board meeting Simms detailed his plans to form The Daimler Motor Company Limited and to build a brand-new factory, incorporating light rail, for 400 workmen making Daimler Motor Carriages. He then proudly produced the first car licence, for a 3½hp Panhard & Levassor (later referred to as a ‘Daimler Motor Carriage’). Bought in France by Evelyn Ellis, who had three Daimler motor launches moored by his home at Datchet, it was landed at Southampton on 3 July and driven by Ellis to Micheldever near Winchester where he met Simms and they drove to Datchet. Ellis later drove it on to Malvern. This was the first long journey by motorcar in Britain. Simms firmed up his plans for the new company and new factory selecting a six-acre site at

Motor Mills, Daimler's office block

Sandy Lane, Coventry

 

Then, unexpectedly, Simms received Lawson’s proposal to purchase The Daimler Motor Syndicate as a going concern. It was promptly accepted. The purchase was completed on 27 March 1896 and Lawson took control. Simms was appointed consulting engineer to the new company but was not to be on the board of directors, possibly because he had become a director of the Cannstatt company. The Coventry mills were purchased and named Motor Mills. A deal was concluded with Panhard & Levassor in which the Cannstatt company would receive a commission of 10% on British sales.[2] 1896 passed with car sales limited to imported Panhard and Peugeot cars. Aside from engines Cannstatt seemed unable to supply ordered components or specially commissioned working drawings. Four experimental cars were built and some (redesigned in detail) Daimler engines.

 

The first Coventry Daimler-engined product made its maiden run on 2 March 1897.[2] By mid-year they were producing three of their own cars a week and producing Léon Bollée cars under licence. The first car left the works in January 1897, fitted with a Panhard engine, followed in March by Daimler engined cars. Lawson claimed to have made 20 cars by July 1897 making the Daimler Britain's first motor car to go into serial production, an honour that is also credited to Humber motors who had also displayed, but in their case their production models, at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1896. The Daimlers had a twin-cylinder, 1526 cc engine, mounted at the front of the car, four-speed gearbox and chain drive to the rear wheels.

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