Production chronology1901–1904
Sourced production or model lifecycle range used by the main catalog timeline.
curated ↗4 years
← Cudell
Cudell / Model record
CudellFront-Engine De Dion 6 HP
Production1901–1904
Recorded originGermany
ClassVeteran passenger automobile or light commercial vehicle
Power6 hp
Cudell's first licensed De Dion-Bouton-pattern car with its single-cylinder engine beneath a front bonnet. Announced in June 1901 and normally bodied as a tonneau, it was also offered as a 5,250-mark phaeton and supplied with delivery coachwork, including a van used by Berlin's Wertheim department store. Its front engine, inclined steering column, propeller shaft and bevel final drive distinguish it from the rear-engine Patentwagen. Six- and 8-hp front-engine cars overlapped in the reconstructed program, so the 6 HP is not treated merely as an imprecise caption for its more powerful successor. A 20-hundredweight bottle-beer body shown at Leipzig in 1901 remains a commercial configuration because its exact engine/chassis identity is not independently stated.
Chronology ledger
Dates with their meaning intact
Record depth — Documented
How this is measured → This record contains useful sourced evidence, but it does not yet meet the reference-ready standard. Still needed: attributed imagery. Fields we cannot source stay empty rather than guessed.
Research notes
No model ledger survives; a Wertheim department-store delivery vehicle proves commercial use but not a separate production count.