Today, soy is divisive. Soybean products—such as soy milk and tofu—are staples of a vegetarian diet, often mocked by those who love meat and traditional dairy. So it’s no surprise that photos of “Henry Ford’s soybean car” are regularly ridiculed on social media. But the truth is that this 1941 compact was the result of Ford’s obsession with integrating products grown by American farmers in his manufacturing process. And that’s pretty cool. It also weighed less than almost anything on the road.

Henry Ford established a lab in 1929 to find ways to use agricultural products in future vehicles. The organization—eventually named the “Soybean Laboratory at Greenfield Village”—conducted chemical research on multiple farm products. Henry Ford delighted in showcasing its inventions. In an interview, designer Lowell E. Overly told the following story:

“Henry Ford was interested in finding new industrial uses for farm products and by 1931 he had settled on soybeans as having the most promise… Sometime in late 1937 or early 1938 large sheets of soybean plastic were made and Mr. Ford was so proud of it that he would jump up and down on it and brag to reporters or anybody else that happened to be around… Later a rear deck-lid made from the plastic was fitted to Mr. Ford’s car and he delighted in sitting it with an axe [ax] that he carried in the truck. However, Mr. Overlay recalls that the first time Mr. Ford struck it with an axe the deck lid cracked and the axe head went through it. Later, glass fibre was mixed into the plastic and the further precaution of a rubber boot was affixed to the sharp edge of the axe. The rebound would cause the ax to fly out of Mr. Ford’s hands and gravel about fifteen feet before coming to rest. Satisfied with these results Mr. Ford gave orders to develop a small car with a plastic body…The car had a tubular steel frame. The body panels were made of plastic composed of soybean fiber in a phenolic resin with formaldehyde used in the pregnation.”

Lowell E. Overly in History of Industrial Uses of Soybeans, 2017

I love this story. It is vaguely reminiscent of Elon Musk cracking his Cybertruck window when he overconfidently threw a steel ball at it on stage. But the result of Ford’s research was indeed a car.

Ford filed patent US2269452A in July 1940 for what was essentially a space frame compact car: a “chassis frame on which a vehicle body may be mounted built up with interlaced cross members.” At the “Dearborn Days” celebration on August 13th, 1941, it rolled out a completely unprecedented 2,000-pound car.

1941 Ford “Soybean Car”, designed by Bob Gregorie & Lowell Overly, experimental agricultural plastic body
byu/graneflatsis inWeirdWheels

This car’s body was 14 plastic panels hung from a metal tube frame. The Associated Press reported that the panels were 70% cellulose and 30% resin binder. So where did Henry Ford get the cellulose? The Detroit Free Press reported, “Ford plastic car… made from farm products, was on display, as well as a nearby plot where the company has a growing soy-bean display from which the plastics are formed.”

Despite all the press hullabaloo, Ford was too focused on the war effort during the 1940s to continue its plastic car project. By the end of the war, other lightweight materials had become much more popular.

Today, Ford is a bit bashful about its soybean car. The Henry Ford Museum is quick to say, “no record of the product’s plastic formula exists.” So it can’t confirm or deny the 2,000-pound car’s exact soybean content.