Smallest Cars in the world
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Smallest Cars Ever Made
Cars make no pretense of being small anymore. Since the last time gas prices hit $4 a gallon nationwide, the United States went from a hybrid- and electric-embracing market looking for any old Geo Metro it could find to a full-on retreat back to the biggest SUVs money could buy. Even "small" brands such as Mini and Fiat now have larger extended versions that scarcely resemble their cute, efficient Euro models. To give you some idea of how far we've sped away from small cars, here are just a few examples of the smallest vehicles ever offered.
Suzuki Suzulight
Suzuki's first attempt at an automobile was this less than 10-foot, roughly 1,000-pound bubble of a car with a 360 cc engine. Fitting right into the country's "People's Car" program of small, inexpensive, efficient vehicles, the Suzulight enjoyed a run from 1954 to 1969, helped Japan embrace the car, and turned Suzuki into a multinational brand.
Pasquali Riscio
Florence-based Pasquali made an electric car that goes only 25 mph and only about 30 miles or so on a single charge. And it comes only in yellow. But you don't need a license to drive a Riscio in Italy, and it can reduce the need for gas-powered scooters and vehicles.
Vespa 400
It had a 400 cc engine that put out just 14 horsepower, but don't let that peak speed of 50 mph fool you: From its aircraft-style construction to its independent suspension, this shared nothing with its parent company's scooters but the name. Though so tight on space it didn't even have room in the doors for roll-down windows, the Vespa 400 managed to sell 1,700 vehicles here in the U.S.
Piaggio Ape Calessino
Now this is a glorified scooter. Piaggio has produced its three-wheeled Ape commercial vehicles since 1948, and they remain incredibly popular. But the Ape Calessino made its debut in the early 2000s, presented as a throwback version of the "La Dolce Vita" Roman holiday vehicles of the 1950s and '60s. At only about 8 feet long, it's designed more as a tourist scooter bus and less like an actual car.
Goggomobil Dart
What if your 10-foot, 761-pound car was sporty instead? Australian firm Buckle Motors tried to answer that question with the Goggomobil Dart, which came with an optional 18 horsepower engine to give it a bit more pickup than the standard 15. That said, the 300 and 400 cc engines weren't enough to give this bulbous little car more than a three-year run.
Just 54 inches long and 41 inches wide, the Peel P50 has held the Guinness World Records' title of smallest car for more than 50 years. A city car to its core, it was designed for one person, one shopping bag ... and has just one wiper and headlight. Though the 49 cc engine manages just 28 mph, the Peel is still considered street legal in the UK.
Peel Trident
What if you wanted a tiny car with two seats and two headlights instead of one? The bubble-domed beauty known as the Peel Trident had an initial run of only 82 when made from 1965 to 1966, and tried a relaunch in 2011. One driver's sidecar is another's incredibly tiny car.
Renault Twizy
This isn't just some microcar from yesteryear: This less than 8-foot electric quadcycle with three doors (including two scissor doors on the sides) is still being produced after debuting in 2012. It's no slouch: The Twizy gets 62 miles on one charge and is popular enough in Europe to make its way into David Guetta videos.
Reva G-Wiz
Less than 9 feet long and 4 feet wide, this Indian-built electric car claimed it could fit two adults and two children and hold a cargo weight of up to 600 pounds. Though more a heavy quadcycle than a car, it could reach 50 mph, travel 48 miles on one charge, and sold about 4,600 vehicles during its run from 2001 through 2012. The folks at TV show "Top Gear" hated the G-Wiz, considering it underpowered, ugly and unsafe — but the Reva has evolved a bit.
Mia Electric
How do you make an electric vehicle more affordable? French manufacturer Mia Electric thought the answer was to make it smaller. This three-seat, all-electric vehicle was just 9 feet, 5 inches long with two sliding doors and a centrally positioned driver's seat. But even with a 56-mile driving radius and a 62 mph top speed, the roughly $16,000 starting price wasn't enough to keep the company in business. Production ended in 2013 after starting just two years earlier.
Related: 25 Cars No One Wanted to Buy
Buddy Electric
Produced and sold largely in Norway, this 8-foot electric car has been on sale since the 1990s and sits three people across on a bench seat. While it may not be the most popular vehicle in its home country, the Buddy Electric has a range of up to 49 miles and recharge time of at least six hours.
Heinkel Kabine
You're going to see a bit of overlap between German aircraft companies from World War II and some of the smallest cars ever made. Heinkel Flugzeugwerke, the same folks who made Luftwaffe bomber planes such as the Heinkel HE 111, made this funny three-wheeler that drivers had to open the front end to get into. This one-door sedan topped out at 56 mph, produced all of 9 horsepower, and lasted only from 1956 through 1966, when it died as the 200 cc Trojan 200.
Messerschmitt KR200
The Messerschmitt KR200, or Kabinenroller (Cabin Scooter), was a cute 10-foot three-wheeler made by the same company that built some of the most feared fighter planes of World War II. Banned from making aircraft, the company turned its attention to vehicles. It began making the KR175 in 1953, later improving the power rear-mounted 191 cc two-stroke, single-cylinder engine that helped the car hit a top speed of 56 mph. Not only was it produced from 1955 through 1964, but this odd little car with the fighter-canopy top sold more than 12,000 vehicles during its run.
FMR Tg500
It looks like a Messerschmitt KR because it's supposed to. But the Tg500 got better-handling four wheels instead of three, while keeping the acrylic bubble canopy and tandem seating. Less than 10 feet long, 4 feet wide and just 858 pounds, the TG500's 493 cc engine gave it a top speed of 78 mph. That's fast for a microcar, but it had plenty of competition during its brief run from 1958 to 1961.
Jurisch Motoplan
Carl Jurisch knew Germans weren't riding motorcycles anymore, but also weren't driving around with multiple passengers. In 1957, he created a three-wheeled car out of the body of a motorcycle sidecar and tried to sell a prototype in New York — but at the height of the big, tail-finned car era, misjudging the market terribly. Just two other Motoplans would be built, and the model never took off.
Commuter Cars Tango
At just 3 feet wide, the Tango is as slim as some motorcycles. At just 8 feet long, it's able to fit into most parking spaces sideways and take up just one quarter of a space. George Clooney bought one and, for his money, he got a car that can charge in 10 minutes on a supercharger and in three hours on a dryer outlet.
Austin Coulson's DIY Car
Custom carmaker Austin Coulson really wanted to see if a vehicle the size of a Power Wheels or Barbie kiddie cart could make it on the road. At 2 feet, 1 inch high, 2 feet, 1.75 inches wide and 4 feet, 1.75 inches long, this car is built from the body of a '57 Chevy Bel Air mockup and uses the drive train, transmission, and engine from a road-legal quad cycle. It has seatbelts, headlights, taillights, turn signals, a functional horn, rearview mirrors, and a custom 3-inch by 9-inch safety-glass windshield that make it drivable enough to be licensed and registered. In 2014, it earned Guinness recognition for world's smallest roadworthy car.
BMW Velam ISO Isetta
A single-cylinder car that could get 78 mpg, the Isetta asked drivers to get into the car by opening its entire hinged front end. If it got into a crash, the driver could climb out of the canvas roof. This 7.5- by 4.5-foot egg is what comes to mind when folks think of a "bubble car," and it was incredibly popular by microcar standards: Selling 161,728 from 1953 to 1961.
Cozy Coupe
The Daewoo Matiz in its original form isn't all that tiny. At nearly 11.5 feet, it's subcompact to be sure, but the car now known as the Chevrolet Spark isn't small enough to be a toy. It took English mechanic John Bitmead to make it one — an adult-sized version of the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe toy car that can actually reach 60 mph.
Myers Sparrow
It had a two-door hatchback version known as the "Pizza Butt" (commissioned by Domino's), an electric motor that can be charged in a standard outlet, and a body just 8 feet long that looked like a duck's head. This three-wheeler had a top speed of 70 mph and a driving range of nearly 60 miles, but the fact that it was still more of a motorcycle than a car led Myers to develop a similarly diminutive "half car," the "Point 5."
Mahindra e2o
After relentless mocking over the electric G-Wiz, the company behind it decided to go back and develop a more robust electric vehicle. The Mahindra e2o measures just 129 inches long by 59 inches wide, and can simply be plugged into a normal electrical outlet. It has an app that allows you to unlock and pre-warm your car.
Honda N600
Like most Japanese Kei cars of its era, the N600 was a motorcycle disguised as full-sized car. (A Japan-only version, the N360, had an engine so small that a spare tire could be fit in with it.) The N600 was less than 10 feet long and little more than 4 feet wide, but its 599 cc engine made it viable for markets in North America and Europe.
Nissan Figaro
Only 20,000 were made in Tokyo in 1991, but this retro convertible has a strong and adoring following. Less than 12 feet long and 6 feet wide and weighing just under 1,800 pounds, the Figaro was a convertible with ivory leather seats, chrome and Bakelite-style knobs, chrome-trimmed speedometer and other gauges, as well as a CD player. As recently as 2018, roughly 3,000 Figaros were still on the road in England.
Austin-Healey Sprite
Only about 11 feet long and 4 feet wide, the Sprite was built to be small enough to keep in a bike shed, but sporty enough to not stay there very long. A 948 cc, 1-liter engine was enough to give it a top speed of about 82 mph and make it a beast on the rally circuit. This convertible — and the similar MG Midget — were also convertibles stylish enough to go bounding down the backroads during a weekend getaway.
Citroen Prototype C
Citroen spent more than 40 years making an iconic small car known as the 2CV. But Citroen knew it could go smaller. At a deceptive 12.6 feet long, 5 feet wide, and just 846 pounds, this tiny teardrop fit a driver and one passenger in its lightweight aluminum body's tandem seats. The 425 cc engine in the Prototype C produced 12 horsepower and hit a top speed of 68 mph.
Kleinschnittger F125
bout every European country did what it could to get citizens into cars. In Belgium, that meant hammering aluminum over wooden frames and melting old army cook pots into fenders. The F125 went out to 22 countries, including the U.S., and its 9.5- by 4-foot frame and 388-pound heft remained popular enough to keep production going from 1950 to 1957. But the 123 cc engine and 46 mph top speed limited the potential of the Kleinschnittger F125.
Reliant Robin
This tiny three-wheeler went through a few iterations during its run from 1973 through 2001, none especially safe. This was, after all, a 13-foot car with less than 5 feet of width that used a single wheel in front to turn. It got used as onscreen gags in films such as "Only Fools and Horses" and got victimized by "Mr. Bean," and the reputation of the fiberglass Reliant Robin took a bashing on "Top Gear" for being … tippy. (It was faked.)
At just 9 feet long and less than 5 feet wide, the Minauto is more quadcycle than car and doesn't require a license to drive — but with a top speed of just 28 mph, is strictly a city car. Also, its maximum weight with cargo can't exceed 1,500 pounds, so you, your passenger, and your stuff will all have to weigh in at less than 600 pounds.
The New York Times fell in love with the CityEl some years ago, thanks largely to its three wheels, electric power, and plexiglas/fiberglass components. But it can go only about 39 mph and travel 56 miles at best before it needs to plug in. Also, at 460 to 617 pounds, the City El doesn't fare well against a stiff wind.
Mitsubishi Mirage
At roughly 12 feet long in hatchback form, it's pretty big for a car on this list, but minute for a subcompact in the United States. Its 1.2-liter engine and all of 74 horsepower are a bit underpowered. But the Mirage is still sold here, and its nearly 40 mpg combined is the best you're going to get out of a new gas-powered vehicle.
The i-MiEV electric vehicle hasn't been sold in the United States since 2017, thanks to poor sales. At only about 11 feet long and less than 5 feet wide, it was the smallest vehicle Mitsubishi sold here. But it had a surprising 50.4 cubic feet cargo space with the seats down and got 66 horsepower and 62 miles of range out of its little motor.
Eshelman Sport Car Deluxe
It looks like the ugly version of a child's jeep (and even came in a child-sized model), but Cheston Lee Eshelman — developer of functional wingless aircraft who became better known for tractors and small cars — wanted to make it work. This one is just 2 feet wide and got 70 mpg when introduced in 1953. The Deluxe models had chrome-plated rocket side trim.
Related: The 16 Best, Worst, and Weirdest Minivans of All Time
Suzuki Cappuccino
At less than 1,600 pounds, the Cappuccino didn't require much to get it moving during its initial run from 1991 through 1998. Just over 10 feet long and 5 feet wide, the two-seater Cappuccino roadster had a 657 cc three-cylinder engine that produced 63 horsepower and could get up to more than 80 mph. It was one of the hottest cars of Japan's Kei car era.
Honda Beat
The last car approved by company founder Soichiro Honda, this was a fun one. Italian sports car designer Pininfarina gave this little roadster some Ferrari-like lines and venting, while Honda dropped in a 656 cc engine that fit right into its Kei car category. Little more than 10 feet long and 5 feet wide, it's a zippy little cart that produces 63 horsepower and can go 84 mph. Even with the S660 replacing it, the Beat is beloved among the tuners who embrace its 1991-1995 aesthetic.
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