Reliant Motor Company was a British car manufacturer based in Tamworth, Staffordshire, England.

Reliant also produced kitchen worktops, train bodies, and personal watercraft shells from fibreglass.

They decided to build their own vehicle in Williams's back garden on Kettlebrook Road in Tamworth.

Their home-built design closely resembled the Karryall van previously built by Raleigh, and the prototype was licensed in January 1935.

The driver no longer sat astride the engine and the vehicle gained more conventional forward-facing seats in the front.

Visually similar to an over-sized motorcycle, the first Regent was completed on 13 March 1946, ten years after the first twin-cylinder van.

The Regent grew to a GVW of 10 cwt and was better equipped, with sliding windows in the doors rather than canvas side screens.

A similar vehicle was the Israeli Sabra Sport, also based on a Ford engine and running gear.

To power the Scimitar GT coupe and Sabre, Reliant turned towards Ford of Britain and were supplied with the Zephyr 6 and Consul 4 engines.

On the 3.0 V6 GTE, the back axle ratio changed depending on the use of either a straight four-speed gearbox or one with an overdrive unit.

Bond's Equipe sports car already had this agreement, but Triumph entered British Leyland and the deal ended.

It was based on Reliant Kitten mechanical with its own pickup body and canvas top design.

[5] After production finished in Greece, Reliant decided to build it in the UK, but gave the Fox many design changes, including 12-inch wheels, altered suspension and the high compression 850 cc engine.

Reliant also made a small three-wheeled commercial vehicle called the Reliant TW9, later sold by other companies as the Ant (and, like the Robin, licence-built in Greece by MEBEA[5]), which was a chassis and cab, onto which a custom rear body was fitted: a road sweeper, a flat back, a van, a milk float and hydraulic lifting rear bed version were common fitments.

It was often used by public utility companies or more commonly sold to councils, where its ability to negotiate narrow alleyways was a big advantage.

With Reliant's expertise in fibreglass, the company created bodies for trains, kitchen worktops and boat/jet ski hulls.

The main market these would sell to would be a motorcyclist who didn't wish to pass their full car licence test.

It was a sizable niche market due to the large number of motorcyclists present and it lasted until 2001 when the EU eliminated the B1 class from being issued with a full motorcycle licence (the B1 allowing the holder to drive a three or four-wheeled vehicle up to the weight of 550 kg [1,210 lb]).

Production continued of the Robin model until 2001 when shareholders decided to import Ligier microcars and Piaggio Ape three-wheelers instead.

Jonathan Haynes sold his shares and left the company before production ended because he wished to create an all-new four-wheeled Reliant model instead.

Reliant, in the early 1950s, agreed a deal in Israel to produce Regent vans in SKD form.

The car used a lot of Reliant's existing parts; basically converting a Regent into a four-wheeled vehicle.

Autocars would end in the late 1970s and would plan to start a new company selling Reliant Kittens in Israel but this would not happen.

In later years, it was revealed that B&N Plastics were planning to fit a Japanese K-car 660 cc three-cylinder engine and five-speed gearbox to make the Reliant Robin more modern.

A final version of the Reliant Robin was produced with leather seats, metallic gold paint, alloy wheels, walnut dashboard, and some other luxurious features, which retailed for £10,000.

Reliant also had many contracts with Ford to build fibreglass high roof tops for their Transit model.

On 8 July 2017, a blue plaque was unveiled to honour both the founders, T. L. Williams and E. S. Thompson, and marked the birthplace of Reliant.

This was supposedly demonstrated on Top Gear, but Jeremy Clarkson admitted in The Sunday Times in 2016[7] that the Robin only rolled over frequently because the production team had welded the differential, fitted different sized rear wheels and placed heavy sandbags in the passenger footwell.

It is a common misconception that the main character Derek "Delboy" Trotter in the British television comedy series Only Fools and Horses owned a Reliant Robin.

Drivers with a full A-category motorcycle licence who are over 21 years of age may drive a three-wheeled vehicle of any weight.