By promoting Nikolaus Otto’s 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines, Daimler focused world attention on new engine technology.

Developed new 4-stroke engine with Wilhelm Maybach and promoted its use in many different vehicles including boats, trolley cars, fire trucks and dirigibles.

Encouraged international development of automobiles by licensing foreign manufacturers to build Daimler engines.

Gottlieb Daimler’s engineering and marketing skills gave the fledging auto industry much of its initial direction. Highly creative and mechanically talented, Daimler was an excellent organizer and manager whose ideas and products opened new markets.  By applying these skills to Nikolaus Otto’s new engines, he incorporated precision manufacturing techniques, creating a reliable product that other manufacturers struggled to copy. Establishing his own company, Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, Daimler and partner Wilhelm Maybach developed and produced a new, highly efficient 4-stroke engine. Daimler realized his vision to see the engine utilized in many different vehicles, and it became the foundation for the development of motorized transportation. When the Daimler/Maybach engine debuted at the 1889 Paris Exposition, one newspaper account observed, “… off in this hidden corner … was germinating the seed of a modern technological revolution.”