The enthusiastically awaited Smart Car is finally coming to the United States.

Zap, a Santa Rosa, California, company that imports and “Americanizes” the Smart Car, announced Friday that it has delivered the first car to a dealer in Reno, Nevada.

The first American buyers, a husband and wife living in Nevada, will get the keys on Tuesday. The unidentified buyers are among numerous drivers and dealers who have signed up to buy Smart Cars. In its annual report last month, Zap reported $431 million in purchase orders.

“This is definitely the beginning,” said Zap Chairman Gary Starr. “We don’t have an exact rollout defined yet, but we are going to be rolling out more cars soon.”

The tiny Smart Car has been a hit in Europe since 1998, but it has been unavailable to American drivers because it didn’t meet American safety standards. Manufacturer DaimlerChrysler never intended the car for the American market.

But Zap, best known for its electric scooters, has imported at least 100 of the cars and modified them to meet American standards.

The company has been promising the Smart Car for more than a year, but has met with a number of speed bumps.

Zap tried to sell the Smart Car on eBay twice, in May and December 2004, but both times eBay pulled the car before the auction ended because of regulatory issues.

Zap then unveiled the “Americanized” Smart Car models—the ForTwo coupe and the convertible—at a press conference in February. At the time, CEO Steve Schneider said Zap would list the car on eBay by the end of the month, and then distribute the converted cars to about 50 dealers around the country.

The auction never materialized. The company partnered with Trilogy Capital Partners, which is managing Zap’s investor relations, and in March said it had decided to hold off eBay plans to go with “a more formal marketing launch.” Zap announced it was ramping up production and gaining distribution partners. The company now is working on a “very large financing” to increase production, said Mr. Starr.

Mr. Starr added there were a number of reasons why Zap changed its plans for the eBay launch. “These dealers have been committed to us, and we wanted them to process the first car,” he said. “Also, we wanted to avoid any potential hiccups and just go through a conventional auto dealer.”

As for the delays, Mr. Starr said the company just wanted to be sure everything was done right this time, including all the paperwork for several entities. “This process has really never been done before, so there’s a learning curve both for us and for the government,” he said.

Mr. Starr would not disclose how many cars have been completed, and he said the company’s profitability this year would depend on how many it could deliver. Zap, which has yet to turn a profit, had previously said it expected the Smart Car to launch into profitability this year.

Still, the timing for the first sale is good, said Mr. Starr. “With high gas prices, it is a good time for everything,” he said. “Even our used low-speed electric cars are selling at the highest pace they have in a while.”