Empire Rising: Spain

As of now, the Spanish Government has purchased over 400 automobiles, nearly half of which have become the exclusive vehicles for Cabinet Ministers and some key department heads.

Although these simple automobiles still have many issues, they are much faster than horse-drawn carriages in terms of speed.

Take Carlo’s car as an example. The car Carlo rides is equipped with the latest engine developed by the Engine Research Laboratory, requiring maintenance only once every 350 kilometers on average.

Even though Carlo’s carriage has been modified, with steel plating inside and an enlarged cabin, the car specially provided for Carlo can still reach a speed of about 25 kilometers per hour.

A swift warhorse reaching a speed of 25 kilometers per hour is not exaggerated, but such a speed for a carriage is somewhat remarkable.

With a large number of simple automobiles equipped, communication between Spanish Government departments has become more convenient. Previously, if traveling by carriage, a visit between two departments might take about half an hour.

When the means of transportation became simple automobiles, commuting between departments took only a little over ten minutes, significantly saving officials the time needed to travel between various departments.

Carlo’s specially modified car can still reach a speed of 25 kilometers per hour, while those cars with less or no modifications can generally reach a speed of about 30 kilometers per hour.

Currently, government officials are quite satisfied with such automobiles, with some even suggesting purchasing a car for private use.

Considering that such an automobile requires inspections every 300 kilometers or so to prevent issues during travel, Carlo ultimately rejected the officials’ proposal.

However, Carlo also ordered Benz and others to quickly improve the engine’s stability, aiming to extend the stable driving distance from 350 kilometers to over 500 kilometers.

From the perspectives of speed and power, such automobiles already play a significant role. However, due to the engine’s poor stability and frequent breakdowns,

this has made it difficult for automobiles to enter the commercialization phase. Carlo had the Spanish Government purchase over 400 automobiles for public use, partly to provide more relevant data to the Automobile Laboratory through extensive trials.

Graham’s Electricity Laboratory is the hope for Spain to promote an electrified industry, while Benz’s Automobile Laboratory is Spain’s hope to lead the world in internal combustion engines.

The importance of electrification needs no further elaboration; the importance of internal combustion engines is by no means inferior to electrification.

Future heavy weapon aircraft and tanks will use internal combustion engines as power, and so will automobiles and other machinery that use internal combustion engines extensively.

If Spain can make simultaneous progress in electrification and internal combustion engines, it will truly have the confidence to compete with superpowers like the UK and Germany.

If Spain can stay at the forefront in the development of tanks and aircraft, it can ensure significant benefits for Spain in the future world wars, thereby genuinely becoming a superpower.

The tasks for Benz and others, apart from enhancing the stability of the four-stroke engine, also include exploring the assembly line production method proposed by Carlo to increase automobile output.

Carlo set a deadline to push for the commercialization of automobiles before 1885, aiming to bring Spanish automobiles to the global market.

Before this, Benz and others need to at least ensure that manufactured automobiles do not face issues during a single 500-kilometer journey or 15 consecutive hours of driving.

To facilitate timely repairs for car owners when issues arise, the restructured automobile company needs to build repair shops across Spain and even in various European countries, helping owners quickly check for problems and repair automobiles.

Only after completing these tasks can automobiles officially achieve commercialization. Because only when the issues encountered during automobile use are resolved, will people be willing to purchase automobiles.

Otherwise, no matter how much potential an automobile shows or how useful it is, if problems are unresolved, no one will be willing to buy one.

Besides building repair shops, Spain also needs to establish related energy supply stations in all locations. Regardless of which energy type powers the internal combustion engine, it requires a consistent energy supply to provide power.

Currently, the four-stroke gas engine used by Benz’s Automobile Laboratory can be said to be one of the best engines in the world, but its thermal efficiency is only about 11% to 13%.

Such thermal efficiency, compared to engines in later generations, which can easily exceed 40%, is significantly outdated.

The so-called thermal efficiency is essentially the utilization rate of the energy heat consumed by the engine. This data represents that even the very advanced engines of later generations have less than half efficiency, with more than half of the fuel wasted.

During this era, due to a pitiful thermal efficiency of only 11% to 13%, it means at least 87% of the energy is wasted.

Although unfortunate, there is no way around it. The thermal efficiency of engines can only be improved with continuous technological advancements and the persistent research and effort of relevant experimental staff.

Before technology advances, even if Carlo is willing to invest money, changes in this aspect will not be significant.

Fortunately, oil, the significant energy of the future, is still in an undeveloped state. In the Middle East, vast oil fields remain undiscovered, and Spain hopes, through various means, to obtain a piece of land in the Middle East to control a certain part of the oil reserves.

The land in the Middle East is currently mostly desolate desert, so acquiring a piece of land is comparatively simple.

Only the United Kingdom is colonizing the Middle East among the major powers, and this area is also within the Ottoman Empire’s sphere of influence. For Spain, as long as it obtains permission from the British, acquiring a piece of land in the Middle East is not a difficult feat, and can even be said to be quite simple.