In 1940, the Packard Motor Car Company was the first U.S. auto manufacturer to offer air conditioning as a factory production option. 

As usual when we’re discussing historical firsts, we need to choose our terms with some care. No, the 1940 Packard was not the first car with air conditioning. In the popular workbench magazines of the 1930s, you can find multiple examples of homebuilt and experimental automotive air conditioning systems. But Packard was the first to offer the feature as a regular factory production option. (The cost was $275 to $310). At that time, the term “air conditioning” had not yet taken hold at the company. Packard at first called its system “mechanical refrigeration,” and later “weather conditioner.” (Note the ad at the bottom of this page.)

The Packard setup, which was supplied by the Bishop & Babcock Mfg. Co. of Cleveland, was similar in essence to a modern A/C unit, but with some significant differences. First, the evaporator coil and air blower were mounted behind the rear passenger seat, as shown above. While it was far from ideal, eating up trunk space and chilling the passengers’ necks, this general layout was commonplace in automotive A/C units until 1954, when both Nash and General Motors introduced dash-integrated systems similar to those in use today.

A twin-cylinder vertical compressor, below, bolted to the cylinder head of the straight 8 engine and driven by a V-belt, circulated the DuPont Freon refrigerant. And if you take a second look at the pulley drive, you’ll find something interesting. Unlike modern A/C systems, there’s no electromagnetic clutch and thus no way to shut off the compressor. For cold weather use, the drive belt had to be removed. Another shortcoming: There was no fresh air intake and stale cabin air was endlessly recirculated. So while the Packard unit was a fully functional air conditioner, it had some issues that made it not quite ready for prime time in the broad consumer market.

An unspecified number of 1940-42 Packards were equipped with the pioneering A/C unit, and a number of them still survive today. The Bishop & Babcock unit was also installed on some 1941 Cadillacs and Chrysler Imperials, and was also an extra-cost option on the 1942 DeSoto. (See our feature on the ’42 DeSoto here.) So while air conditioning was technically available on American cars before World War II, in practice it didn’t begin to take hold in the marketplace until the early 1950s. By 1970, reportedly, nearly half of all the new American cars sold were equipped with air conditioning, and today the figure is plus or minus 100 percent.