​​Originally, the Panhard Levassor automobiles were based on the Daimler mechanics, but from 1890, Emile Levassor conceived to install a twin cylinder engine in an automobile. After a first prototype, a second more successful car was born in 1891, and the decision made to build a first series of thirty cars. Emile Levassor was brilliant and stubborn and invents, perfects and does not hesitate to “try” his innovations and patent them, like a gearbox with three ratios enclosing sliding pinions in a tight casing.

From 1893 the Daimler engine proves to be heavy and relatively inefficient so Emile Levassor and his friend Gottlieb Daimler work on a brand new engine, the Phoenix. This engine, with two or four cylinders, will really begin his commercial career in 1896. In that same year, a four-speed gearbox was proposed, and by 1898 the steering wheel replaced the cow-tail steering.

By 1891 René Panhard and Émile Levassor had secured a place in history by developing the “Systeme Panhard”. This configuration—a chassis with a front-mounted engine, clutch to sliding gears and final drive to the back axle by chain—was adopted by most other manufacturers for many decades to come. The Type B1 was built from 1898 to 1903 and was the first Panhard & Levassor vehicle to showcase the Systeme Panhard. It was powered by the Phoenix four-cylinder inline engine of 2.4 litres producing 8hp and propelling the vehicle up to 50kph.