In 1900 there were 4192 cars registered in the United States.
1,681 Steam powered
1,575 Electric powered
936 Gasoline powered
In 1905 there were about 78,000 cars registered in the United States.
About 3,400 Steam powered
About 3,200 Electric powered
About 72,000 Gasoline powered
That’s a big market growth and no, it wasn’t Henry Ford’s doing;
Model A (1903-1905) sold 1700
Model AC (1904) sold a handful
Model B (1904-1906) sold 500
Model C (1904-1905) sold 800
Model F (1905-1906) sold 1,000
Model K (1906-1908) sold 950
Model N (1906-1908) sold 7,000
Model R (1907) sold 2,500
Model S (1907-1909) sold 3,750
So you see Ford didn’t have a huge impact on the market before 1905.
Now they had to get these cars to customers or at least to dealers, but most were sold in the area of manufacture.
One or two would be shipped out on a truck then the trucks grew to haul 4 then 6 cars.
But as the brands grew to national distribution they turned to railroads, first the open design like the trucks all
the way up to standing them on end like the Vega, in order to cut costs.
But this was a new one on me.
♫ But I done seen 'bout ev'rything
When I seen a elephant’s fly... open.