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 ofte ...

produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer

Daihatsu is a Japanese automobile manufacturer headquartered in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. One of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers, the company was known for building three-wheeled vehicles and off-road vehicle ...

from 1951 until 1952.

Overview

Although Daihatsu had been producing

motorized tricycles Motorized may refer to: * Motor vehicle ** especially an automobile * Motorized military unit—see Armoured warfare * any item containing a motor An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanica ...

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 an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

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 Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

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 OHV may refer to: * Overhead valve engine * Off-highway vehicle, aka off-road vehicle * Off-roading * California State Parks California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the C ...

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 Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

Three-wheeled motor vehicles First car made by manufacturer Cars powered by boxer engines Rear-engined vehicles Cars introduced in 1951 Cars discontinued in 1952 {{Classicpow-auto-stub