The very first moving vehicle would have been designed in around 1672 in China. It was the first working steam-powered vehicle designed by a man named Ferdinand Verbiest however it was more of a large toy for the Chinese Emperor as it was unable to carry a driver or passenger.
The first self-propelled mechanical vehicle was built in 1769 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot however issues with maintaining steam pressure and water supply meant that the vehicle was of little practical use.
Twenty-eight years later in 1807 both Nicéphore and Claude Niépce from France and François Isaac de Rivaz from Switzerland separately built an internal combustion engine.
Nicéphore and Claude, who are said to have invented it first, decided to install the engine in a boat. It was François who used the engine to develop the automobile. Unfortunately these designs were not very successful and it wasn't until 1885 that the problems with the engine was solved.
Karl Benz is the man that solved the various issues and built a four-stroke cycle gasoline engine which was patented in 1886. By 1888 Benz has began to sell his vehicles with his company Benz & Cie, whom later became Daimler-Benz.
By the end of the 1800's the motor vehicle industry was in full swing and has, to this day, continued to grow and develop into the industry we now know.
