In 1903, the first U.S. patent for an automobile electric self-starter was issued to Clyde J. Coleman of New York City (No. 745,157). He invented the self-starter in 1899, but the invention was impractical.

The license was purchased by the Delco Company, which was taken over by the General Motors Corporation. Charles Kettering at General Motors modified the self-starter, and made it practical. It was first installed on Cadillac cars in 1911. By 1920, nearly every car had a self-starter.

The self-starter is a necessity for internal-combustion engines, because the Otto cycle requires the pistons already be in motion before the ignition phase of the cycle. This means that the engine must be started in motion by an outside force before it can power itself. Originally a hand crank was used to start the engine, but it was inconvenient and rather hard work to crank the engine up to speed. For the self-starter an electric motor, called a starter motor or sometimes just plain starter, is used in place of the hand crank to put the engine into motion.