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Inventors and engineers had long been intrigued by the idea of front wheels driving a vehicle, imagined in the same manner as horse-drawn carts — in which horses pulled, rather than pushed — the advantages seemed obvious. Placing the weight of an engine over the drive wheels improved traction, while combining the engine, transmission and final drive in one unit afforded a more compact chassis layout with  improved space efficiency.
Though simple in concept, the mechanism necessary to transmit power to the front wheels must also steer the vehicle, which perplexed early developers. Solutions were both complex and expensive. Meanwhile, having the engine power the rear wheels was uncomplicated, so pushing a vehicle, rather than pulling, became the norm for production motor vehicles.
Credit for transferring front-wheel drive from theory to execution goes to Frenchman Nicholas Cugnot, who, in 1769, built a three-wheeled steam-powered carriage. His design pulled goods over the rough and tumble streets of Paris. More than 100 years later, the first gasoline-powered car to use front-wheel drive appears to have been the Lepape. A story unto itself, the Lepape was described in Voitures a Petrole in 1897, and in Petroleum Motor Cars, the English version, one year later. Others were to follow in Europe, a few of which met tremendous success. Those engineers were not alone in experimenting — several Americans were working on it at the same time.
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Re: Who Invented Front-Wheel Drive and Why is it So Widely Used Today?
