Are there any plastic cars?

[browngt3]

OK, my 15 Yr old niece asked the question: Are their any plastic cars? So I asked her to elaborate on this as obviously plastic is used extensively in modern cars. So the question really extends to how much plastic is used in the body and chassis as obviously it can't be in mechanical components. So her question is, are there any cars cars made from a 100% plastic body?

[Xcore]

Corvettes, tvrs, lotus etc

[Pothole]

The Bricklin SV1 used an acrylic body (made by a bath manufacturer, I believe)

[EDE 7N]

BMW i3.

[Gavin0478]

Robin Reliant aka the "Plastic Pig"

[Pothole]

Gavin0478 said:

Robin Reliant aka the "Plastic Pig"

No such car, Jasper Carrot,

[Red9zero]

Gavin0478 said:

Robin Reliant aka the "Plastic Pig"

Reliant Robin !!!!!!!!!

[lobster940]

The Trabant's bodyshell was made of Duroplast…

[leyorkie]

Smart car body panels are plastic.
Most of the others are fibre glass, is that the same as plastic?

[donkmeister]

Berkeley Cars entire range... They were primarily a caravan manufacturer, so sportscars were a way of filling in orderbook slumps.

[donkmeister]

leyorkie said:

Smart car body panels are plastic.
Most of the others are fibre glass, is that the same as plastic?

Fibreglass is glass fibres in a resin... Aka Glass Reinforced Plastic, so it's a composite material rather than 100% plastic.

[shtu]

leyorkie said:

Smart car body panels are plastic.
Most of the others are fibre glass, is that the same as plastic?

Yep. Fibreglass = Glass Reinforced Polyester = Plastic.

[Evanivitch]

Anything that is carbon fibre tub and Carbon fibre panels is mostly plastic.

BMW i3/i8 have the majority of the carbon fibre in production cars today...

[Equus]

Pothole said:

The Bricklin SV1 used an acrylic body...

And even if we're disallowing fibre reinforced plastics, there's also still the Lotus Expose, which has a transparent polycarbonate bodyshell.




We've also had plastic engines (the Polimotor).

[Tyre Smoke]

lobster940 said:

The Trabant's bodyshell was made of Duroplast…

Yes, but actually not plastic. Soviet Russian rags shredded and mixed with East German glue and pressed into a mould by a screw down mould and left for 'a while' to cure.

All you need to know here...

[Cold]

The original Lotus Elite and all of the current McLaren range.

[Truckosaurus]

Some of the American 'Saturn' brand of motorcars of the late 20th century made a feature of having plastic panels that were more dent resistant than traditional metal ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_S_series

[Equus]

Truckosaurus said:

Some of the American 'Saturn' brand of motorcars of the late 20th century made a feature of having plastic panels that were more dent resistant than traditional metal ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_S_series

Plenty of cars have at least some plastic panels (most have plastic bumpers, of course) - the Citroen BX was notable back in its day for having a plastic bonnet and tailgate, for example - but the main unibody structure remains metal.

There are lots and lots of fibre reinforced plastic (carbon or glassfibe) monocoques where the FRP forms the actual chassis structure too - everything from the Type 14 Lotus Elite and Rochdale Olympic, through many GRP kit cars (GTM, Midas, Davrian, Pelland, Clan, etc., etc.) to modern production cars like the Alfa 4C), but I'm not aware of any that used unreinforced plastic for the monocoque, for the simple reason that it's not usually stiff enough.

[Eyersey1234]

Invacars such as this one

[Equus]

Eyersey1234 said:

Invacars...

... had glassfibre reinforced plastic bodyshells on a steel chassis.

If we're going to list all the cars that have fibre reinforced bodyshells on metal chassis, then the list will be a long one (starting with every Lotus since the Elan).