On January 13, 1942, Henry Ford received a patent for his newest invention: the plastic car. He had always been a forward thinking businessman, and had been trying for some time to find a workable union between his world of heavy industry and his love of agriculture. HIs efforts were particularly focused on the soybean, a crop for which he found many uses, one of which was more promising than the others: a rigid plastic shell that could replace the body panels on cars.
Ford had always been an innovative thinker. He had designed the modern assembly line, given his workers unprecedented raises as a way of boosting productivity, and even built an entire city in the Amazon rainforest to harvest rubber plants for tires. One of his lifelong fascinations was with the soybean, a product in which he saw huge potential. Specifically, he saw in soybeans an entirely renewable source for the materials for making cars, something that couldn’t be said for metal. From a business perspective, by buildings cars from materials that he owned from the seed to the factory, he could lower prices and build better products.
The car itself was no slouch. It was very light when compared with the steel cars of the Ford line, weighing in at just 75% the curb weight of the comparable steel version. The plastic panels and windows, while weighing less than their steel and glass counterparts, were much stronger and therefore safer. And, given its lighter footprint, the same engine would give a more responsive and faster ride. It didn’t even look that much different from the cars of the day.
Ultimately, the soybean car met a quick end. Given the entry of the U.S. into the Second World War, all resources public and private were diverted to support the war effort. And once it had concluded, Ford never returned to his soybean car project with the same vigor as before. He reportedly ordered the original prototype destroyed, ensuring that it only exists today in pictures and a single newsreel. In the end, Ford’s dream of a car made from pieces that grew in a field would remain just that; a hope for the future.