A subcompact car is an automobile in a North American vehicle size class, encompassing vehicles smaller than compact cars. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a passenger car is classified as subcompact if it has between 85 ft³ (2400 L) and 99 ft³ (2800 L) of interior volume. Many contemporary subcompacts sold in North America fall into the supermini category (as defined by Euro NCAP) in Europe.
In North America, this type of car was first seen in the 1950s with the introduction of the Nash Metropolitan and a number of imported models, notably the Volkswagen Beetle and various small British cars. The subcompact did not see wide adoption until the 1970s with the introduction of such cars as the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega, which were produced by American automakers in response to the growing popularity of small imported cars especially from Volkswagen, Nissan-Datsun, and Toyota. As of 2008, numerous models of subcompacts are sold, including the Toyota Yaris, the Nissan Versa, the Honda Fit, the Scion xD, the Chevrolet Aveo, the Kia Rio, and the Hyundai Accent.
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