Punch Newspapers Sections Published 3 January 2021 Ever since Karl Benz built the first modern car in Germany in 1885 and Henry Ford democratised the ownership and use of a vehicular asset with the entrance of the first ubiquitous automotive brand, Model T, in 1908, very few years must have subjected the automobile to the mixed fortunes this elapsing annus horribilis (i.e, a year of disaster or misfortune) dealt it. The car typically drove, metaphorically, into 2020 with its gasoline-powered arrogance. It was, up until then, silently defiant of all the hoopla about the transmutation to electronic vehicling; it must have sneered at the condescending pronouncements of politicos from France, Germany, UK, US, China, etc, putting dates to the termination of its beloved soul (the carbon monoxide belching internal combustion engine).