Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive vehicles.

By far the most common layout for a front-wheel-drive car is with the engine and transmission at the front of the car, mounted transversely.

Other layouts of front-wheel drive that have been occasionally produced are a front-engine mounted longitudinally, a mid-engine layout and a rear-engine layout.

Experiments with front-wheel-drive cars date to the early days of the automobile. The world's first self-propelled vehicle, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot's 1769/1770 "fardier à vapeur", was a front-wheel-driven three-wheeled steam-tractor. It then took at least a century for the first experiments with mobile internal combustion engines to gain traction.

Sometime between 1895 and 1898 the Austrian brothers and bicycle producers Franz, Heinrich and Karl Gräf (see Gräf & Stift) commissioned the technician Josef Kainz to build a voiturette with a one-cylinder De Dion-Bouton engine fitted in the front of the vehicle, powering the front axle. It is possibly the world's first front-wheel-drive automobile, but it never saw series production, with just one prototype made.

In 1898, Latil, in France, devised a front-wheel-drive system for motorising horse-drawn carts.

In 1899 the inventor Henry Sutton designed and built one of Australia's first cars, called The Sutton Autocar. This car may have been the first front-wheel-drive car in the world. Henry's car was reported in the English press at the time and featured in the English magazine Autocar, after which the car was named. Two prototypes of the Autocar were built and the Austral Otis Company was going to go into business with Henry to manufacture Henry's car but the cost of the car was too prohibitive as it could not compete with the cost of imported cars.

In 1898–99, the French manufacturer Société Parisienne patented their front-wheel-drive articulated vehicle concept which they manufactured as a Victoria Combination. It was variously powered by 1.75 or 2.5 horsepower (1.30 or 1.86 kW) De Dion-Bouton engine or a water cooled 3.5 horsepower (2.6 kW) Aster engine. The engine was mounted on the front axle and so was rotated by the tiller steering. The name Victoria Combination described the lightweight, two-seater trailer commonly known as a Victoria, combined with the rear axle and drive mechanism from a motor tricycle that was placed in front to achieve front wheel drive. It also known as the Eureka. By 1899 Victoria Combinations were participating in motoring events such as the 371 km (231 mi) Paris–St Malo race, finishing 23rd overall and second(last) in the class. In October a Victoria Combination won its class in the Paris-Rambouillet-Paris event, covering the 100-kilometre course at 26 km/h (16 mph). In 1900 it completed 240 kilometres (150 mi) non-stop at 29 km/h (18 mph). When production ceased in mid-1901, over 400 units had been sold for 3,000 Francs (circa $600) each.