Maxwell Motor Company
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| Automobile Manufacturing | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Fate | Acquired by Walter Chrysler |
| Successor | Chrysler |
| Founded | 1904 |
| Founder | Jonathan Dixon Maxwell & Briscoe Brothers Metalworks |
| Defunct | 1925 |
| Headquarters |
Tarrytown, New York Detroit, Michigan |
The Maxwell was a brand of automobiles manufactured in the United States of America from about 1904 to 1925. The present-day successor to the Maxwell company is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Maxwell automobile production began under the Maxwell-Briscoe Company of Tarrytown, New York. The company was named after founders Jonathan Dixon Maxwell, who earlier had worked for Oldsmobile, and Benjamin Briscoe, an automobile industry pioneer and part owner of the Briscoe Brothers Metalworks, who was president of Maxwell-Briscoe at its height.
In 1907, following a fire that destroyed the Tarrytown, NY, factory, Maxwell-Briscoe constructed what was then the largest automobile factory in the world in New Castle, Indiana. This factory continued as a Chrysler plant following its takeover of Maxwell until its demolition in 2004.
Maxwell was the only profitable company of the combine named United States Motor Company, which was formed in 1910. Due to a conflict between two of its backers, the United States Motor Company collapsed in 1913 after the failure of its last supporting car manufacturer, the Brush Motor Company. Maxwell was the only survivor.
In 1913, the Maxwell assets were purchased by Walter Flanders, who reorganized the company as the Maxwell Motor Company, Inc.. The company moved to Highland Park, Michigan. Some of the Maxwells were also manufactured at two plants in Dayton, Ohio. For a time, Maxwell was considered one of the three top automobile firms in America, along with General Motors and Ford (though the phrase "the Big Three" was not used at the time). By 1914, Maxwell had sold 60,000 cars.
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