The Daihatsu Bee is a three-wheeled

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are often ...

produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer

Daihatsu , commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture. Historically, Daihatsu was ...

from 1951 until 1952.

Overview

Although Daihatsu had been producing motorized tricycles for carrying freight since 1930, and had also produced a small car for military use in 1937, the Bee was the first

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

the company built for sale to the general public. The car was marketed from October 1951, shortly before the company changed its name from 'Hatsudoki Seizo Co' to Daihatsu. The Bee's model code is PCA. The car had a two-door fibreglass, saloon body, and was popular as a

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...

in Japan where licensing regulations permitted a lower charge per mile for three wheel vehicles than for four. Power was provided by a rear-mounted 540 cc

OHV An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

air-cooled two-cylinder

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

engine. It was the first car in Japan with a horizontally opposed engine. The car was adapted from one of Daihatsu's three-wheeled delivery trucks. It sold very poorly, production was highly labor-intensive and ceased after only approximately 300 units were built.

Notes

References

External links

Source of secondary information about the car Photographs of the Bee showing the engine and other viewsDaihatsu publicity photograph of their museum carDaihatsu archive photograph of the Bee
Bee Three-wheeled motor vehicles First car made by manufacturer Cars powered by boxer engines Rear-engined vehicles {{Classicpow-auto-stub