After investing millions of dollars into the development of plastics, the Ford Motor Company publicly debuted its Soybean Car on August 13, 1941 at Dearborn Days. The car earned its name due to its body panels supposedly made of agricultural plastic derived from plants including soybeans, wheat, corn and hemp. Henry Ford and Eugene Gregory originally collaborated on the car, receiving a patent for it on this day in 1942. The patent had originally been filed for in July of 1940.
The car weighed in 30 percent lighter than a normal steel vehicle of the same dimensions, making it highly fuel efficient. Add in the fact its motor ran on hemp fuel, and the vehicle was all but a crop itself. Ford himself claimed he would “grow automobiles from the soil” That said, the car’s 14 plastic body panels mounted to a tubular steel frame of unique design.
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