In the economic depression of the 1930's and the wartime and post-war shortages of the 1940's and 50s, Europeans introduced a whole slew of "mini-cars", that were designed to be small, cheap, and use little fuel. Here are photos from the mini-car collection at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. Some of them were... uh...stranger than others.
1931 Mochet Velocar. Perhaps the first "hybrid"...sort of.... The Velocar was made in France from 1927 until the early years of World War Two. If you had gas money, you could power the car with a one-cylinder 100cc gasoline engine, which would move it at 21mph. If you didn't have gas money, the car came with two sets of bicycle pedals, for you and your passenger.
1953 Manocar. This was the ultimate contradiction in terms: a mini-car that tried for maximum interior space. It was made by the French company Manom with high seats and curved body panels to try to give more room. Only two prototypes were made, and it never entered production.
1953 Ardex. The Ardex Company, in France, set out to build the ultimate "economy car". The bodies were made from plywood; the tires were bicycle tires (and the car only had three of them), the engines were 50cc or 100cc scooter motors, and the car had only one door. To further economize, the showroom was only open on Saturday and Monday. Remarkably, the Ardex was for sale for three years before the company went broke.
1957 Messershmitt KR-200. After World War Two, the Messershmitt Company was forbidden by the surrender terms to manufacture any aircraft. So, to stay in business, it began producing automobiles, including this mini-car. Unlike most mini-cars, however, this one was almost an actual car--it had a four speed 190cc engine that could make 50mph. About 25,000 of them were made from 1955 to 1964.
1957 Zundapp Janus 250. Made from 1957-1958 in Germany by the Zundapp Motorcycle Company, this little car had a 248cc engine with a 4-speed transmission that could make 50mph. It carried four people, but two of them sat facing forwards and the other two sat facing backwards, with the engine in between. (Hence the name "Janus", for the two-faced Roman god.)
The 1964 Peel P-50, and the 1965 Peel Trident. The P-50, made by Peel Manufacturing Company on the Isle of Man, is, at 4.58 feet long and 3.18 feet wide and 220 pounds, the smallest production car ever made. The car used a 50cc scooter engine (about the size of a chainsaw motor) and could make 30mph. A year later, Peel introduced a two-person version, the Trident, which measured 6.08 feet long and 3.25 feet wide and weighed 330 pounds. Its 200cc engine could drive it at 40mph.
And just to show that the mini-car is not dead yet, this is the 1999 Nissan Hypermini. Built with recycled aluminum, the Hypermini is powered by a 33hp electric motor that can make 62mph. Although never available in the US, about 220 of them were sold in Japan.