‘Yes, Lego car!’: why small electric cars could
be about to break the grip of SUVs
The 500kg Microlino is part of a new set challenging
the ever-increasing domination of huge cars
Jasper
Jolly
Sat 1 Jun
2024 08.00 CEST
Driving
through central London in a tiny Microlino electric car, barely visible between
the hulking SUVs, it’s surprising to be the focus of so much attention. “Yes,
Lego car!” shouts a scaffolder.
Made by
Micro, the family-owned Swiss company behind the mini-micro kick scooters, and
modelled on the bubble cars that had a brief heyday in the 1950s, the
two-seater is only 2.5 metres long – marginally smaller than a Smart car. The
most unusual feature is its one and only door (there is also a rear hatch for
accessing the boot), which is at the front. The windscreen and bonnet swing
open to let you in.
The
Microlino goes on sale in the UK this month, in the face of a trend that is
pushing the car industry in the opposite direction. Despite global heating, and
the warnings of environmental scientists, the demand for ever larger cars just
keeps growing.
Nearly half
of global car sales were sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in 2023, according to
the International Energy Agency (IEA), a respected forecaster. The definition
of SUVs can be vague (usually something to do with a higher seating position
and off-road styling), but the IEA this week said “the shift towards every
larger and heavier cars” is the “defining automobile trend of the early 21st
century”.
Tiny cars
are still a rarity, and the Microlino is enough to cause a stir. Uncountable
people double take, wave, laugh and take pictures. Cyclists lean over to chat
at traffic lights; a bus driver delays his passengers a few seconds to give a
double thumbs up; a taxi driver suggests it could help this reporter’s romantic
life.
It feels at
home nipping around town, although with 136 miles of range and a 56mph top
speed it could manage jaunts farther afield.
Squeezing
into a tiny space between a Bentley and a Land Rover Defender, the Microlino
parks face-out under the watchful gaze of a bystander who turns out to be the
owner of both luxury cars. This is in the posh London district that gave its
name to the “Chelsea tractor”, where the four-wheel drive has become standard
issue even if the residents rarely need off-road vehicles to make it to the
shops and back.
The reach
of the SUV now goes far beyond Chelsea, however. David Bailey, a professor of
business economics at the University of Birmingham, said different pressures
have contributed towards bigger cars. Customer demand for the space and a
commanding seating position is part of it. Regulation is another: airbags and
emissions control systems (such as AdBlue for diesels) add a larger percentage
to costs 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
said. However, he added, “if you make it at volume you can still make a decent
profit margin”.
Even the
Mini has outgrown its name. Perhaps Britain’s best-known car, it was conceived
at a time when postwar fuel rationing made efficiency attractive. The original
was 3.05 metres long. Then, at a 2011 relaunch, it grew to 3.7 metres. One of
the latest versions, the steroidal electric Mini Countryman (“the biggest Mini
ever”) has more in common with a Land Rover, at 4.4 metres.
The
Microlino attracted interest when it squeezed into the gap between a Bentley
and a Land Rover Defender. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
Some other
brands have gone the same way. Smart’s Fortwo was the most familiar tiny car on
European roads, but the new electric models (under part-Chinese ownership) are
significantly bigger five-seaters.
The results
of car growth are not good for the environment. Two hundred kilograms or more
in extra weight for SUVs plus the extra drag from a bigger frontal surface area
mean burning more fossil fuels. That pushes up carbon emissions by 20%, the IEA
said. A quarter of global growth in oil demand last year can be ascribed to
petrol SUVs. Electric SUVs use up far more valuable minerals such as lithium,
nickel and cobalt than smaller vehicles, making decarbonisation goals harder.
Bigger
vehicles also add to tyre pollution, and they make pedestrian deaths much more
likely, for women and children in particular.
And they
take up more space. SUVs need 0.3 sq metres extra, which adds to parking
requirements and gums up city streets. By contrast, 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
models such as the Renault 5 and the £14,995 Dacia Spring will help speed the
transition from fossil fuels.
“One of the
main barriers that is holding people back is the lack of smaller, cheaper EVs,”
he said. “I’d argue that [manufacturers] were a little slow in trying to build
these models.”
Of the big
western manufacturers, only Stellantis – the owner of Citroën, Peugeot,
Chrysler, Vauxhall and others – has ventured into the truly tiny electric car
segment. Its £8,095 Citroën Ami has gained something of a cult following
despite its 28mph top speed and 46-mile range. It is particularly popular with
high school students in France, where the self-proclaimed “urban mobility
object” is classed as a light quadricycle, meaning it can be driven by anyone
aged 14 or over without a full licence.
Yet it is
China that is extending its growing electric car dominance into the realm of
tiny cars, often based on cheap lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Those
on sale in China (but not yet in Europe) include Geely’s £6,000 Geometry Panda,
the £3,400 Mini EV from Wuling Hongguang and the £9,100 Baojun Yep, a joint
production between SAIC and the US’s General Motors, which offers SUV styling
in a tiny package.
For
slightly larger hatchbacks, the competition is fierce. SAIC’s MG4 has already
conquered the UK market, where the brand originated. BYD’s impressive Dolphin
is expected to make a big splash in the market for small family cars.
Merlin
Ouboter, who oversaw the Microlino project and whose father, Wim, made Micro
into a household name with its scooters, is hoping that he can steal a march on
European rivals in the tiny car segment (although a premium £22,000 price tag
and some flimsy parts suggest it has a fair way to go to be a mass seller).
“Most of
the cars we see on the road today are completely overengineered for their daily
use case,” Ouboter said. The Microlino is aimed at the vast majority of
journeys (94% in the UK) that are less than 25 miles. For the rest, he
envisages greater use of occasionally shared or rented cars.
James Nix
of the Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment says other
governments should emulate France, which imposes higher parking fees in Paris
for big cars, and higher sales taxes nationally. That could help halt the
annual swelling in the size of new cars towards the scale of metal monsters in
the US.
“Do we as
Europeans want to replicate the evolution of the North American car fleet?” Nix
asked. “I don’t think that question has been asked at a political level yet.”
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