Suzuki CV1

The Suzuki CV1 is a single seat microcar that Suzuki first showed at the 24th Tokyo Motor Show in 1981 under the banner Suzuki Community Vehicle. It had four wheels with a narrower track at the rear, one door in a fibreglass body and, at first, a single headlamp. Its claimed top speed was 30 km/h, the legal limit for a moped in Japan at the time, so it could be driven on a moped licence, and it was sold in very small numbers on a trial basis at 300,000 yen. A government review later ruled that it needed a full licence, which let Suzuki raise the top speed to 60 km/h but removed the reason for the car to exist. The design was a modern take on the post war German bubble cars such as the Heinkel Kabine and the BMW Isetta, and production ended in 1985.