The Ariel was an English automobile manufactured in Birmingham from 1900 to 1915, and again from 1922 to 1925. The company now resides in Somerset run by a small group of dedicated staff.

The company began by building motor tricycles and quadricycles , but a 10hp twin-cylinder car was being produced by 1902. In 1903, a 16hp four-cylinder was introduced; it was the company's first. These vehicles had a leather cone clutch that was entirely separate from the flywheel. A six-cylinder model, built on a seemingly inadequate tubular chassis , entered production early in 1904.

An entirely new range was announced at the end of 1905; called the "Aero-Simplex", these cars were Mercedes-inspired fours of 15hp and 25/30hp and a six of 35/40hp. In 1907-08 the company began production of the monstrous 50/60hp six, which offered 15·9 liters for a chassis price of £950. In 1907 Ariel sold its Bournbrook , Birmingham factory to British Lorraine-Dietrich , and thereafter assembled its cars at the Coventry Ordinance Works . Production of a 1·3 liter light car was quashed by the outbreak of World War I.

After 1918 the company tried one last, abortive attempt to cash in on the small car market; the Ariel Nine featured a flat-twin air-cooled engine, and was built by A. Harper Sons and Bean .

Modern Era

Ariel is now based in Somerset, and is one of the UK's smallest automobile companies, with just 7 employees, producing no greater than 30 cars per year.

The companies flagship car is the Ariel Atom. An extremely light, high performance car based around the Honda Civic engine and gearbox. The Atom is the worlds first Exoskeletal car, it has no bodywork or roof, and is built entirely around the tube chassis, making it extremely lightweight at less than 500KG. This means that the high performance model can exert over 600BHP per tonne, at the fraction of the cost of a much heavier, deigner super car.

The Ariel Atom has received great media interest, most recently when Jeremy Clarkson tested the Atom on BBC motoring televison programe Top Gear.