First Cars

In 1996, The Netherlands celebrated 100 years of automobility. There has been much speculation about the first Dutch car. Until 1996, many believed it was a Benz Victoria, bought by J.P. Backx, a notary in Wieringerwaard. However,, a citizen of Tilburg named J.J. Bogaers already owned a car one year earlier. Strangely, the brand and type of this first Dutch car remains unknown.

Wieringerwaard is located in an early 17th century sea polder of the same name. Archaeological finds prove that this area was inhabited in medieval times before it was swept away by massive storm floods. It's not clear whether this area belongs to the historical shire of Texla, because the old maps aren't very accurate. However, the name suggests that Wieringerwaard was part of the neighboring shire of Wiron. Then again, historians are not even sure whether Wiron was part of Texla or a separate shire altogether.

All this is rather strange. Wieringerwaard is a very, very, very small village in North Holland. I know this, because my wife was born and raised there. And in the late 1800s, this village must have been even smaller. This was a time of horse-and-carriage, especially in the rural areas north of Amsterdam....

Some of the pictures above were taken in my hometown, Schagen, which is just a few kilometers south of Wieringerwaard. I always assumed the first cars would have popped up in the richer, more densely populated areas of my country. But Tilburg was an equally small township as Schagen, back in these days. Now however, Tilburg hosts Tesla's only European assembly plant.

If only J.P.Backx had purchased his car just a bit earlier, Tesla might have opened this assembly plant in the shire of Texla (appropriately pronounced "Tesla"). Near the port of Den Helder. With short shipping routes to Norway, the land of so many Tesla customers. There's plenty of space for a Gigafactory in North Holland too...

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