The first Motorwagen used the Benz single-cylinder four-stroke engine with trembler coil ignition. This new engine produced at 250 rpm in the Patent-Motorwagen, although later tests by the University of Mannheim showed it to be capable of at 400 rpm. It was an extremely light engine for the time, weighing about . Although its open crankcase and drip oiling system would be alien to a modern mechanic, its use of a pushrod-operated poppet valve for exhaust would be quite familiar. A large horizontal flywheel stabilized the single-cylinder engine's power output. An evaporative carburettor was controlled by a sleeve valve to regulate power and engine speed. The first model of the Motorwagen had not been built with a carburettor, rather a basin of fuel soaked fibers that supplied fuel to the cylinder by evaporation.