There was a time before the cupholder
05/05/2023
Today you can find them in almost every car, the "cupholders". Even super sports cars can no longer do without them, but the invention is not actually that old. And in Europe, car manufacturers apparently resisted for quite a long time before installing such devices.
Perhaps it's also because our winding and bumpy roads provide less motivation to drink while driving. The Americans, with their wide and straight highways, probably came up with the idea earlier that you need to be able to eat while driving. After all, the device for the cup holder is also called a "cup holder".
However, this term only first appeared in automotive literature in the 1990s, e.g. here in amsor here. But there were also cup holders in Europe long before that, as a look into the rear of the Rover 3 Litre of the sixties shows.
Our readers probably know more about this, just comment, it could be an exciting discussion ...
