‘Yes, Lego car!’: why small electric cars could be about to break the grip of SUVs | Automotive industry
Driving by means of central London in a tiny Microlino electric automobile, barely seen between the hulking SUVs, it’s stunning to be the focus of a lot consideration. “Yes, Lego car!” shouts a scaffolder.
Made by Micro, the family-owned Swiss firm behind the mini-micro kick scooters, and modelled on the bubble cars that had a short heyday in the 1950s, the two-seater is simply 2.5 metres lengthy – marginally smaller than a Smart automobile. The most uncommon function is its one and solely door (there’s additionally a rear hatch for accessing the boot), which is at the entrance. The windscreen and bonnet swing open to allow you to in.
The Microlino goes on sale in the UK this month, in the face of a development that’s pushing the automobile industry in the other way. Despite world heating, and the warnings of environmental scientists, the demand for ever bigger cars simply retains rising.
Nearly half of global car sales were sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in 2023, in accordance to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a revered forecaster. The definition of SUVs can be obscure (often one thing to do with a better seating place and off-road styling), however the IEA this week mentioned “the shift towards ever larger and heavier cars” is the “defining vehicle development of the early 21st century”.
Tiny cars are nonetheless a rarity, and the Microlino is sufficient to trigger a stir. Uncountable individuals double take, wave, snicker and take footage. Cyclists lean over to chat at site visitors lights; a bus driver delays his passengers a couple of seconds to give a double thumbs up; a taxi driver suggests it could assist this reporter’s romantic life.
It feels at residence nipping round city, though with 136 miles of vary and a 56mph prime pace it could handle jaunts farther afield.
Squeezing right into a tiny area between a Bentley and a Land Rover Defender, the Microlino parks face-out underneath the watchful gaze of a bystander who seems to be the proprietor of each luxurious cars. This is in the posh London district that gave its title to the “Chelsea tractor”, the place the four-wheel drive has turn into normal problem even when the residents hardly ever want off-road automobiles to make it to the outlets and again.
The attain of the SUV now goes far past Chelsea, nevertheless. David Bailey, a professor of enterprise economics at the University of Birmingham, mentioned totally different pressures have contributed in the direction of greater cars. Customer demand for the area and a commanding seating place is a component of it. Regulation is one other: airbags and emissions management programs (resembling AdBlue for diesels) add a bigger share to prices in smaller cars.
“If a firm produces a small car that takes up a space on the production line, and that is an opportunity cost where they could make a more profitable bigger car,” Bailey mentioned. However, he added, “if you make it at volume you can still make a decent profit margin”.
Even the Mini has outgrown its title. Perhaps Britain’s best-known automobile, it was conceived at a time when postwar gas rationing made effectivity enticing. The unique was 3.05 metres lengthy. Then, at a 2011 relaunch, it grew to 3.7 metres. One of the newest variations, the steroidal electric Mini Countryman (“the biggest Mini ever”) has extra in widespread with a Land Rover, at 4.4 metres.
Some different manufacturers have gone the similar method. Smart’s Fortwo was the most acquainted tiny automobile on European roads, however the new electric fashions (underneath part-Chinese possession) are considerably greater five-seaters.
The outcomes of automobile development should not good for the atmosphere. Two hundred kilograms or extra in further weight for SUVs plus the further drag from an even bigger frontal floor space imply burning extra fossil fuels. That pushes up carbon emissions by 20%, the IEA mentioned. 1 / 4 of world development in oil demand final 12 months can be ascribed to petrol SUVs. Electric SUVs deplete way more useful minerals resembling lithium, nickel and cobalt than smaller automobiles, making decarbonisation targets tougher.
Bigger automobiles additionally add to tyre air pollution, and so they make pedestrian deaths more likely, for girls and kids particularly.
And they take up more room. SUVs want 0.3 sq metres further, which provides to parking necessities and gums up metropolis streets. By distinction, the tiny Microlino can slip into the smallest of gaps.
Colin Walker, head of transport at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, is hopeful that the imminent launch of smaller, cheaper electric fashions resembling the Renault 5 and the £14,995 Dacia Spring will assist pace the transition from fossil fuels.
“One of the main barriers that is holding people back is the lack of smaller, cheaper EVs,” he mentioned. “I’d argue that [manufacturers] were a little slow in trying to build these models.”
Of the massive western producers, solely Stellantis – the proprietor of Citroën, Peugeot, Chrysler, Vauxhall and others – has ventured into the actually tiny electric automobile phase. Its £8,095 Citroën Ami has gained one thing of a cult following regardless of its 28mph prime pace and 46-mile vary. It is especially fashionable with highschool college students in France, the place the self-proclaimed “urban mobility object” is classed as a light-weight quadricycle, that means it could actually be pushed by anybody aged 14 or over and not using a full licence.
Yet it’s China that’s extending its rising electric automobile dominance into the realm of tiny cars, usually primarily based on low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Those on sale in China (however not but in Europe) embody Geely’s £6,000 Geometry Panda, the £3,400 Mini EV from Wuling Hongguang and the £9,100 Baojun Yep, a joint manufacturing between SAIC and the US’s General Motors, which gives SUV styling in a tiny bundle.
For barely bigger hatchbacks, the competitors is fierce. SAIC’s MG4 has already conquered the UK market, the place the model originated. BYD’s spectacular Dolphin is anticipated to make a giant splash in the marketplace for small household cars.
Merlin Ouboter, who oversaw the Microlino challenge and whose father, Wim, made Micro right into a family title with its scooters, is hoping that he can steal a march on European rivals in the tiny automobile phase (though a premium £22,000 price ticket and a few flimsy components counsel it has a good method to go to be a mass vendor).
“Most of the cars we see on the road today are completely overengineered for their daily use case,” Ouboter mentioned. The Microlino is aimed toward the overwhelming majority of journeys (94% in the UK) which might be lower than 25 miles. For the relaxation, he envisages better use of often shared or rented cars.
James Nix of the Brussels-based marketing campaign group Transport & Environment says different governments ought to emulate France, which imposes greater parking charges in Paris for giant cars, and better gross sales taxes nationally. That could assist halt the annual swelling in the dimension of new cars in the direction of the scale of metallic monsters in the US.
“Do we as Europeans want to replicate the evolution of the North American car fleet?” Nix requested. “I don’t think that question has been asked at a political level yet.”
