Empire Rising: Spain

This also means that in a short period, car companies will not be able to replicate the founding history of the Ford Company. It would be quite good if the automobile market could establish a certain scale.

Benz nodded, and he was also quite aware of the current cost deficiencies in automobiles. No matter how excellent a car is, costs and prices need to come down.

Only by becoming a means of transportation affordable to ordinary people can automobiles truly enter thousands of households and become an important transportation tool, rather than just a luxury circulated among the wealthy.

After the introduction is completed, the next stage is the actual testing phase.

Carlo is quite interested in the new car’s speed of up to 40 kilometers per hour, as this speed can already meet daily needs.

It is important to know that the most popular means of transportation currently, trains, have speeds of only less than 60 kilometers per hour.

This is reached only on plains, where train speed has no limitations.

Because Spain has many mountainous regions, train speeds in Spain generally remain between 30 to 40 kilometers per hour, with few trains capable of exceeding 40 kilometers per hour.

This also means that driving the newly produced car between two cities in Spain may require less time than a direct train journey.

After all, trains need to stop at stations to allow passengers to board and alight. These stops waste a lot of time, while cars can reach the destination directly without stops in between.

Unless there’s insufficient fuel or the car has problems, cars are more efficient than trains on journeys within 500 kilometers.

Of course, this efficiency is only in terms of passenger transport. If cars are used to haul cargo, the speed definitely won’t reach 40 kilometers per hour.

Currently, the speed of freight trains in Spain generally lies between 20 to 30 kilometers per hour, with most of the time under 25 kilometers per hour.

If cars are used for cargo hauling, the speed should also be at this level, possibly hovering around 20 kilometers per hour.

The same reason being that Spain is mountainous, and the roads are not that flat.

Hauling heavy cargo is also a burden on the car engine. Whether it can run over 500 kilometers while hauling heavy cargo is a question Carlo is curious about.

Covering 500 kilometers with passengers is not considered a great performance, but if it can maintain a stable journey over 500 kilometers while fully loaded with cargo, it would definitely be an excellent performance in terms of current automobile technology.

If cars can reach this level, it can be said that they already have the capacity to replace horse-drawn carriages.

Only when cars can fully replace horse-drawn carriages can the golden age of automobiles truly arrive.

It is precisely because of this that Carlo is more focused on the cars’ cargo-hauling performance.

This new type of car has a total of five seats, two more than the original car, enhancing passenger capacity effectively.

Of course, all seats except the driver’s seat can be removed to turn the car into a cargo vehicle.

Benz and others tested the car’s passenger and cargo capacities one after another, confirming that fully loaded with five people, it can indeed reach a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour.

But this maximum speed strains the engine a bit, and most of the time it runs at a speed of 36 kilometers per hour.

Only when carrying just one person can the car maintain a speed of 40 kilometers for a long period. However, the difference between 36 kilometers per hour and 40 kilometers per hour is not much, and Carlo can accept this.

In terms of cargo hauling, this car also demonstrated quite an excellent performance.

Including the driver, the entire car can bear up to 420 kg, which is 70 kg more than the previous generation car.

This also means that the car’s capacity for hauling cargo has been effectively improved, making it a better choice whether buying a car for passenger transport or cargo hauling compared to horse-drawn carriages.

As for speed, when fully loaded with 420 kg of cargo, the new car’s maximum speed barely reaches 30 kilometers per hour.

However, similar to passenger transport, this maximum speed cannot be maintained for long. For prolonged journeys, the speed must be reduced to about 27 kilometers per hour.

With full load, both passenger and cargo cars can maintain stable speeds of 36 kilometers per hour and 27 kilometers per hour, which is already quite excellent.

Because of a shortage of time, Carlo cannot personally witness these cars’ continuous driving duration.

However, the car factory dares not conceal anything in this aspect, and since they claim the car can steadily run over 500 kilometers, Carlo still trusts the data they’ve given.

Based on current actual test results of the car, apart from the high cost being a drawback, the current car can be said to have no other disadvantages.

Compared to horse-drawn carriages, automobiles are faster, either in passenger or cargo capacities, and do not require very meticulous care.

If it can be ensured that cars won’t frequently encounter problems, Carlo would definitely choose cars, a more efficient means of transportation, over horse-drawn carriages.