The Subaru Sambar is an automobile built by automaker Subaru

Subaru

; is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries .Subaru is internationally known for their use of the boxer engine layout popularized in cars by the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911, in most of their vehicles above 1500 cc as well as...

 for the Japanese market. It is Japan's first Keitora (軽トラ), shorthand for "kei class truck" and is still in production. The Sambar is available in both microvan

Microvan

A microvan is a van that fits into Japanese kei car classification or similar. In certain regions, these models are inexpensive and widely used for small business because of tax and insurance benefits; for example, in Japan they are exempted from a certification that there is adequate parking...

 and Kei truck (Pickup truck

Pickup truck

A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...

 style) to fulfill the Kei car

Kei car

Kei cars, K-cars, or , are a Japanese category of small vehicles, including passenger cars, vans, and pickup trucks. They are designed to comply with Japanese government tax and insurance regulations, and in most rural areas are exempted from the requirement to certify that adequate parking is...

 guidelines. Still popular in the domestic market, the Sambar continues to be produced in Japan, China, Korea, as well as in Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 with a joint venture

Joint venture

A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

 with Elcat Automotive

Elcat

ELCAT is an battery electric vehicle manufacturer based in Järvenpää, Finland.Elcat Automotive was owned by an electricity producer called Fortum until production decreases in the early 21st century. Elcat began working in 1974 to design electric cars for Nordic climate...

.

The name "Sambar" comes from a deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 native to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 commonly used to carry small loads.

Since its introduction, the Sambar has used a rear engine, rear wheel drive format (with optional 4WD from 1980 on), with the first two generations using the air-cooled engine from the Subaru 360

Subaru 360

The Subaru 360 was the first automobile mass-produced by Fuji Heavy Industries' Subaru division. A number of innovative features were used to design a very small and inexpensive car to address government plans to produce a small "people's car" with an engine no larger than 360 cc when most in...

, and later generations using the water-cooled engine from the Subaru Rex

Subaru Rex

The Subaru Rex, also known as Ace, Viki, Sherpa, 500/600/700, Mini Jumbo or M60/M70/M80 in various export markets, is a kei class automobile produced from 1972 to 1992 mainly for sale in Japan by Subaru, although it was also sold in Europe, South America, and the Caribbean...

, Vivio

Subaru Vivio

The Subaru Vivio is a kei car that was introduced in March 1992, and manufactured by Subaru until October 1998. It has a 658 cc multi-point fuel-injected four-cylinder engine , which is small enough to place it in the light car class, giving its owners large tax breaks in Japan...

 and the Pleo

Subaru Pleo

The second-generation Pleo first went on sale in Japan on April 20, 2010. Due to Subaru's corporate investment by Toyota, this second generation is manufactured by Daihatsu instead of Subaru, and is a rebadged Daihatsu Mira.-External links:*...

.

The current 2008 Subaru Sambar model is still using the Sixth Generation chassis and body with updated fascia.