Light car

For the Japanese "light car" registration category, see Kei car.

The term light car is used in Great Britain since the early part of the 20th century for an automobile less than 1.5 litres engine capacity. In modern car classification this term would be roughly equivalent to a subcompact car. There are numerous light car clubs in Britain and Australia.

The current driving licence category B1 ("Light vehicles and quad bikes") in Great Britain covers motor vehicles with four wheels up to 400 kg unladen, or 550 kg if designed for carrying goods.[1] This category does not exist in Northern Ireland; a full car licence is required for light cars and quad bikes there.[2]

The term light car was used in the 1910s and 1920s in the United States to describe a cyclecar that had been improved with conventional automobile components, but was not a classification.[3]

  1. ^ "Driving licence categories". Swansea: Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  2. ^ "Riding quad and scrambler bikes". Northern Ireland: Driver and Vehicle Agency. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  3. ^ Kimes, Beverly Rae; Clark Jr., Henry Austin (1996). Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 (3rd ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN 978-0-87341-428-9.