In 1896, Olds completed his first gasoline-powered vehicle, and the following year he founded Olds Motor Works with financial backing from Samuel L. Smith, a wealthy lumberman, in Lansing, Mich.
Olds Motor Vehicle Company was reorganized in 1900 as Olds Motor Works in Detroit. Olds had built a total of 11 prototype vehicles by 1901, including at least one example of a steam, electric and gasoline-powered vehicle.
After the company moved from Lansing to Detroit in 1900, a fire destroyed all of its cars except its small, one-cylinder curved-dash model. Light, reliable and relatively powerful, the curved-dash Oldsmobile (as Olds had renamed his company) became a commercial sensation after appearing at the New York Auto Show in 1901.
In 1901, the company debuted the Curved Dash Oldsmobile, a gas-powered, open-carriage vehicle named for its curved front footboard. More than 400 of these vehicles were sold during the first year, at a price of $650 each (around $17,000 in today’s dollars).
By 1903, Olds Motor Works had become the largest automotive manufacturer in the United States. Olds also initiated several practices that are commonplace in the industry today.
Ransom Olds was one of the first mass-producers of automobiles and inspired an entire generation to explore the possibilities of the emerging auto industry.
In 1904, after an argument with Smith over the latter’s plans to substitute a large touring car for the popular Oldsmobile, Olds left the company and formed the R.E. Olds Motor Car Company, but later changed the name to the REO Motor Car Company.
By 1907 he had built Reo into one of the industry’s leaders. He was president until 1923, maintaining his position as chairman of the board.
After 1908 the company steadily lost ground to its competitors. Oldsmobile continued to struggle, and in 2004 the company finally discontinued the brand. When the last Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line in April 2004, more than 35 million Oldsmobiles had been built during the brand’s lifetime.
Ransom Olds died at the age of 86, in East Lansing, Michigan.
Ransom Eli Olds - Pioneer of the American automotive industry
