The Brief Saga of De Dion-Bouton in America

At the end of the 19th century the De Dion-Bouton Company of France was famous for its advanced internal combustion engine. Sold throughout the world as a stationary engine it also powered a single-cylinder, high revving, two-seater runabout complete with the exclusive De Dion back axle. 1200 of these Vis-a-Vis cars were produced in 1900. De Dion were ready to exploit their products throughout the world. The American market was wide open—in New York automobiles were rare and in Boston even more unusual.

In early 1900, a Mr. Kenneth Skinner, from Boston was granted an exclusive license by the De Dion Company to sell and manufacture its automobiles in America. He was already importing their stationary engines and selling De Dion tricycles.  He licensed a new American company The De Dion Motorette Company of New York to make the cars, a company with a stock capital of $750,000 of which $150,000 was cash. And so the designate General Manager of the Motorette Company, Cornelius Field, traveled to Paris in June 1900. Production of De Dion cars in France was now well under way. Mr. Field returned to New York a month later accompanied by drawings, parts and 3 cars. In that year only 25 cars were imported into the U.S. There was a crippling 45% import duty on self-propelled vehicles.