Ford Designer Lowell E. Overly in the Soybean Car, 1941

In the 1930s, chemists doing research at Henry Ford's Greenfield Village laboratory discovered that soy-based plastics could be molded into thick, hard sheets. The scientists created prototypes of automobile body parts, like trunk lids. Soon, they envisioned a car with a complete soy-plastic body. Henry Ford unveiled this experimental vehicle in 1941. The Soybean Car was abandoned with the U.S. entry into World War II.