Rethinking America’s Auto Origins: Why New York, Not Michigan, Was the Cradle of Car Manufacturing

When most people think about the birth of the American automobile industry, Detroit in particular comes to mind. Dubbed the “Motor City,” Detroit became the undisputed hub of car production in the 20th century, thanks to Henry Ford’s assembly line and the dominance of the “Big Three” automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. But the story of America’s earliest cars actually starts hundreds of miles east in New York.

At the dawn of the automobile age in the late 1800s, New York was a surprising epicenter of experimentation and small-scale car production. Unlike Michigan, which was still developing its industrial base, New York already had well-established machine shops, a thriving shipping industry, and access to investors eager to fund new inventions. These advantages allowed New York inventors and entrepreneurs to become some of the first to build cars in America.

One of the earliest and most important milestones happened in 1896, when the Duryea Motor Wagon Company set up shop in Springfield, Massachusetts, and quickly began selling to customers in New York City. By the late 1890s, a number of automobile companies were based in New York, including the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company. In fact, New York City briefly ran a fleet of electric taxis in 1897 decades before Detroit cemented its reputation.

Perhaps the most surprising fact is that many of New York’s early vehicles weren’t powered by gasoline at all, they were electric. The Electric Vehicle Company, incorporated in 1899 in New Jersey but operating largely out of New York, ran the famous “Electric Vehicle Syndicate.” At its peak, it had over 1,000 electric cabs roaming the streets of Manhattan. Though the company eventually collapsed due to mismanagement, it was proof that New York was setting the pace in the auto industry before Detroit had its big break.

So why do we associate car manufacturing with Michigan instead of New York? Geography and economics played major roles. Michigan was close to raw materials like iron ore and copper from the Upper Peninsula and Great Lakes shipping routes. It also had vast forests that provided wood for early car bodies. Most importantly, it was home to innovative entrepreneurs like Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds, who perfected mass production techniques and drove down costs.

By the 1910s, Detroit’s factories could produce cars on a scale New York shops simply couldn’t match. Michigan became the leader not because it invented the car, but because it industrialized it.

Today, few people remember that New York once rivaled, and in many ways preceded, Detroit in the automobile story. The state’s early ventures with electric taxis, small manufacturers, and investor-driven startups shaped the landscape for what would later explode in Michigan. While Detroit rightly earned its reputation as the Motor City, the true infancy of America’s car industry owes just as much to New York.

Article by Niki Crow