Production chronology1902–1903
Sourced production or model lifecycle range used by the main catalog timeline.
curated ↗2 years
← Covert
Covert / Model record
CovertMotorette / 3 HP Runabout
Production1902–1903
Recorded originUnited States
ClassBrass-era passenger or light commercial automobile; experimental steam car
Power3 hp
Covert's first documented marketed automobile, advertised by B. V. Covert & Co. in spring 1902 and put into series manufacture by late summer. Its exceptionally light chassis used tiller steering, wire wheels and four single-leaf full-elliptic springs. Motorette, Covert Motorette and 3 HP Runabout identify the same vehicle; 'Spindle Seat' describes the surviving body rather than another model. A VCC-dated car marketed in Britain by R. Reynold Jackson survives, but Jackson-Covert/Covert-Jackson is an import badge, not a separately built British model. Retrospective 1901 claims are not used as a production year because contemporary sales evidence begins in 1902.
Chronology ledger
Dates with their meaning intact
Record depth — Documented
How this is measured → This record contains useful sourced evidence, but it does not yet meet the reference-ready standard. Still needed: attributed imagery. Fields we cannot source stay empty rather than guessed.
Research notes
No factory total survives. Known engine and car numbers prove only that the numbering sequence reached at least car 78 and engine 84, not that 84 cars were completed.