Opel’s first automobile marked the company’s formal entry into car production in the spring of 1899, when the Rüsselsheim works began building a motor carriage based on the design acquired from Friedrich Lutzmann. It represented a transitional phase in early motoring: still heavily influenced by carriage construction, but significant as the point at which Opel moved from bicycles into automobiles. The earliest examples were hand-built and soon received improvements, plus a few body variations, as the company tried to adapt the design to a rapidly changing market.
The model’s career was brief. Even as Opel refined it, the basic concept was already becoming outdated by the turn of the century, and the factory shifted away from it after only a short run. Production ended in the summer of 1901, after roughly 65 vehicles had been completed. Although commercially limited, it was historically crucial because it established Opel as an automaker and laid the groundwork for the company’s later licensing arrangements and more modern car production. For enthusiasts and historians, it is best understood not as a mass-market success but as the foundational vehicle that launched Opel’s automotive era.