Aero Trike Roadster
The Aero Trike Roadster (or ATR) was a kit designed by Maurice Bourne of Marquez, Texas, who had previously...
American Small Cars: Complete A–Z List
Small cars in the land of big ones: American microcars, economy specials, electric runabouts and one-off prototypes. This page lists small cars from the USA.
Browse the list alphabetically and open a model page for photos, history and specifications. To explore by maker instead, use the catalog A–Z.
48BRANDS
72MODELS
A
AeroVisions California Commuter
Having been involved with daredevil Evel Knievel’s motorbike stunts, partners Doug Malewicki, Richard...
Airbus Pop.Up
Airbus and Italdesign also came up with the idea of developing a flying car. A passenger cabin that can...
Airscoot
Certainly one of the smallest cars ever built, the ingenious Airscoot was designed in 1947 to transport...
Airway
The Airway was an American microcar with two seats, made by Everett Miller and T. P. Hall between 1949 and...
Alcar 400
The Alcar 400 urban car project, characterised by high technical and design standards, was launched in...
Alden StaRRcar
William L. Alden founded Self-Transit Systems Corp. around 1955. It originally envisioned...
Allelectric
The West Penn Power Company, a subsidiary of the Allegheny Power System, Inc., was an electric utility with...
AMC Amitron
The AMC Amitron is an electrically powered concept vehicle that was built in 1967 along with Gulton...
AMC Concept Electron
In 1977, the AMC Amitron prototype was updated, and was re-announced by AMC as the Concept Electron to become...
American Bantam Model 60 / 62 / 65
American Bantam company was a successor of the American Austin Car Company, which was connected to the...
American Electric Urban Runabout
In 1979, American Electric Company created a prototype of the electric microcar Urban Runabout. It had...
AnyCar III
Mixing parts of different cars in one project has always been the basis for creating hot rods. The goal is...
Arbet
“My car is no weird car,” wrote Jeff Gibson. “It is, by all standards, a normal car, except...
Arcimoto Deliverator
In 2019, Arcimoto presented its first commercial use model. This is an electric delivery 3-wheeler which was...
Arcimoto Generation 1 Prototype
The first model was built by Arcimoto in 2007. It was an open air 3-wheeler with a configurable rear...
Arcimoto Generation 2 Prototype
The 2nd generation prototype of Arcimoto still didn’t look like a finished car. The single occupant...
Arcimoto Generation 4 Prototype ‘Darkwing’
For the vast majority of drivers out there – statistically something like 76% of them, the Pulse concept...
Arcimoto Generation 6 Prototype
After the launch of the first SRK, the development team began the process of optimizing every aspect of the...
Arcimoto Pulse
In September 2009, Arcimoto showed the 3rd generation prototype, called the Pulse. The 3-wheel microcar for...
Arcimoto SRK / FUV
The world is actively changing to electric transport. But this type of vehicles is still quite expensive....
Arcimoto SRK Generation 5 Prototype
Arcimoto took the ideas of first 4 generations and brought them together in a single product prototype...
Arcimoto SRK Generation 7 prototype
Generation 7 was the final arc of the platform development that began after the launch of the Arcimoto Pulse....
Arkla Handywagon
The Arkla Handywagon was a compact American utility truck developed by the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company in...
Autoette CruiseAbout
The Autoette Electric Car Co of Long Beach, California was founded by Royce Seevers in 1947. The batteries...
Automite
The Automite (by Masterworks of Long Green, Maryland) was a fully-enclosed single-seater microcar with...
B
B&B Brogan Doodlebug
The “B&B Specialty Company” was an American company, located in the town of Rossmoyne (Ohio)....
B&B Brogan Errand Boy Scooter
Brogan produced 30 Doodlebugs by his own hands and sold them at $400 per unit. However, he later discovered...
B&B Broganette
“The answer to the demand for a tiny, inexpensive car” was how Frank Brogan described the $500...
B&Z Electra King
One of the most successful and long-lived electric cars ever made was the Electra King made by B&Z...
Bancroft’s Powered Wheel Chair
The August 1938 issue of “Mechanix Illustrated” magazine featured an interesting article about...
Bassons’s Star
Basson’s Industries of the Bronx, New York was behind this car, which was styled by Gil d’Andrea....
BMW Golf Car
Boulevard Machine Works was a small California company founded by Leslie Perhacs, a Hungarian immigrant who...
BMW Truck
Boulevard Machine Works was a small California company founded by Leslie Perhacs, a Hungarian immigrant who...
C
Chevrolet PEV2
General Motors has launched a campaign to release previously unseen concepts called From The Vault. Images of...
Colt Economy
This is the story of one of the many failed attempts to produce an affordable vehicle for local commuting....
Commuter Vehicles Comuta-Car
After production of CitiCar by Sebring-Vanguard, Inc. ended, Commuter Vehicles, Inc. saw the potential in the...
Commuter Vehicles Comuta-Van
In 1979, the Sebring-Vanguard CitiVan, a limited production extended-wheelbase version of the CitiCar, became...
Copper Electric Runabout
With every dramatic surge in oil prices comes renewed interest in alternative fuels for cars; the intense...
Crosley Farm-O-Road
At first glance, this small car seems like a funny garage craft made microcar for schoolchildren, but it is...
Crosley HotShot / Super Sports
Cincinnati radio-and-refrigerator magnate Powel Crosley, Jr., entered the car business in 1939 with dreams of...
E
EAVan
Electric Assisted Vehicles Limited (EAV) introduced EAVan at the Said Oxford Business School Electric Vehicle...
ElectraMeccanica Solo O2 Concept
The ElectraMeccanica’s Solo EV has undergone a “concept update” that primarily changed the...
F
Faction Technology Delivery Robot
American startup Faction Technology finished the Y Combinator business incubator in February 2020, and now...
Ford Cockpit
Ford Cockpit was created in 1981 by the American company Ford Motor Company. The car was presented in 1982 at...
Ford Econocar
In the wake of the fuel shortages of the late 1970s, Ford Motor Company created this two-seat concept as a...
France-Jet 1100 cc Prototype
In 1960, France-Jet built a last special version for the American market. It got long front end, bigger...
France-Jet V2N
With the aim of entering the American market, the subsidiary France-Jet Motor Ltd. created for this purpose,...
Fuel Vapor Technologies Alé
Significant publicity was gained by the unique Ale, which pioneered the concept of ‘fuel vapour’...
G
GEM eX
Following the debut of its compact low-speed ambulance earlier this year, California-based GEM has unveiled a...
General Motors Lean Machine
If you’ve seen the 1993 futuristicaction movie Demolition Man, you might be familiar with General Motors’...
General Motors XP-512G
The General Motors XP-512G, revealed in 1969, was part of an ambitious family of experimental commuter cars...
General Motors XP-512H
The General Motors XP-512H, unveiled in 1969, offered a surprisingly forward-looking vision of automotive...
Gyro Stabilized Cargo Carrier
The Gyro Stabilized Cargo Carrier was a small, experimental vehicle developed in the 1960s for the United...
H
HMV FreeWay
The 1970s reshaped the auto industry. As fuel prices soared and the economy stumbled, massive V8-powered land...
Home built 3-wheeler by Robert E. Taylor
The homemade automobile made by the builder Robert E. Taylor of Bridgeport, Conn., is a three-wheeled motor...
J
Junkcycle by V. G. Clements
Parts from a washing machine, wheelbarrow, bicycle and windmill were used by V. G. Clements of Elmwood, Neb.,...
K
King Midget Model III
The King Midget was produced for a remarkably long 20 years, yet you have probably never heard of it. It was...
M
Mother Earth News’s 3VG
Mother Earth News magazine published articles on a series of prototypes that it built featuring tilting...
Mullen I-Go
American startup Mullen Automotive, which recently acquired a controlling stake in Bollinger Motors and the...
N
Nimbus Halo
The American-Chinese startup Nimbus has started taking orders for the exotic three-wheeled electric car Halo...
P
Pickman XR
Pickman is a California-based company which manufactures its vehicles in China. The original idea for an...
Plymouth Backpack
The 1995 Plymouth Backpack is a compact pickup truck concept vehicle manufactured by Plymouth, unveiled at...
Plymouth Voyager III
In the 1980s, carmakers were grappling with new pressures that often ran counter to what buyers actually...
Polaris Star Car
The Polaris Star Car was a 1960s production open-wheel racer designed to look like a miniature Formula 1 or...
S
Scion NYC Concept
Toyota‘s American design studio has published photos of some previously unknown projects. One of them...
Sebring-Vanguard CitiVan
The CitiVan, was a limited production extended-wheelbase version of the CitiCar. Produced and sold from 1977...
Skorpion & Super Skorpion
The Skorpion was a small American sports car with a fibreglass body, developed in California after the Second...
U
UrbaCar
The UrbaCar, a niche, do-it-yourself (DIY) kit car design from the 1970 – the design was featured in...
V
Viking I
The Western Washington University’s Vehicle Research Institute conceptualized and produced the...
X
XEP-100
3-E Minicar followed this up with a more aerodynamic electric model called the XEP-100. The microcar has a...
#
3-E Minicar
3-E Vehicles of San Diego, California offered a three-wheeler called the Minicar in kit form. An unusual...