microcarfan

Electric microcars

A one-seater with a wooden body was running on batteries in Berlin in 1919. Ever since, the small electric car has been held back by the weight of its lead and the depth of its makers’ pockets, and rescued, now and then, by a war, an oil crisis or a law.

In Berlin, in the summer of 1919, DKW’s owner, J. S. Rasmussen, saw a small electric car go by, and ordered 100 from the man driving it, to sell at the Leipzig Fair.1 The driver was Rudolf Slaby, an aircraft engineer whose trade the Treaty of Versailles had just curtailed. With his cousin Hermann Beringer he had set up the SB-Automobil-Gesellschaft that year, in the rooms of Beringer’s paint works at Charlottenburg.1 Their Slaby-Beringer was a one-seater with a wooden body, and the firm’s brochure of 1922 promised 24 km/h (15 mph) and 80 km (50 miles) from a 130 kg (287 lb) battery in a 240 kg (529 lb) car.2 About 2,000 were built by September 1924: 2,005 by German Wikipedia’s count, 266 of them with DKW petrol engines, and about 2,500 by a German reference book of 1989.13 Slaby later became the designer of DKW’s first car.1

So the battery microcar is not new. What is new is that it sells. For 70 years after Slaby the small electric car ran on lead-acid batteries, and the arithmetic hardly moved: a few kilowatt-hours of lead, often a third of the car’s weight or more, a top speed of 25 to 60 km/h, and a range that hills and cold cut further. It took a war, an oil crisis, a new law or a big maker’s money to get one built in numbers, and most of the small firms that tried went under.

Lead, then lithium: five cars compared
CarYearsBatteryRangeBuilt or sold
Peugeot VLV1941–⁠45About 4 kWh of lead, 160 kg45About 70–80 km645377457
Enfield 80001973–⁠76Lead batteries, eight or six by two accounts, over 300 kg8925 miles (40 km) usable1012010911
CitiCar and Comuta-Car1974–⁠82Eight lead batteries, 48 V, from late 19741240 km flat out13About 4,4001214
Renault Twizy2012–⁠236.1 kWh lithium-ion15About 80 km in use1533,340 sold1617
Citroën AmiFrom 20205.5 kWh18About 75 km18About 65,000 sold by October 202419
A small black box-bodied electric car with tall wire wheels on a pale plinth, a silver saloon behind.
A black 1920 Slaby-Beringer single-seater in the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum, Munich.Photo: Mattes, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Petrol forbidden: France, 1940–⁠1947

From the first months of the German Occupation a French civilian could hardly get petrol at all, and a year later rubber tyres went the same way; a driver needed an Ausweis, a German permit.520 Some 65,000 owners turned to wood gas; others to batteries.520

Peugeot was the only large French car maker to build an electric car in the war. Its own works at Sochaux were in German hands, so it built the Peugeot VLV at La Garenne, outside Paris, from 1941: a two-seat cabriolet with four 12-volt batteries under the bonnet, 160 kg (353 lb) of lead that made up about half the car.45 It was good for 30 to 36 km/h and, on a full charge, 70 to 80 km.645 In the summer of 1942 the Vichy government stopped Peugeot building electric cars and gave its support to a rival: the CGE-Tudor, made by the electrical group CGE with the battery firm Tudor to a design by Jean-Albert Grégoire.65 Peugeot carried on in small numbers all the same, and by 1945 it had made 377 VLVs.647 Philippe Schwoerer, who drove a restored one in 2016, found it called for a new set of reflexes.5

The smaller makers left less behind. The Paris brake maker Jourdain-Monneret built the Autélec, a battery van for 500 kg (1,100 lb) of goods, with a 48-volt battery, a top speed of about 25 km/h and about 65 km of range.21 Pierre Faure, who had worked for Breguet, made two-seaters and vans with wooden bodies, and Électro-Renard of Lyon two-seaters with a quoted range of 72 km.222324 At Nanterre, by the old microcarfan.com’s account, the war pushed Ardex into battery cars: plywood bodies, sometimes pedals in reserve, and in 1943 a version on three wheels.25

The designer Paul Arzens built one for himself in 1942. His Œuf électrique, the electric egg, was an aluminium shell with Plexiglas doors and windscreen on a single Duralinox backbone: a three-wheeler. Five batteries weighing 300 kg (661 lb) gave it about 100 km and 70 km/h. After the war Arzens took them out and fitted a 125 cc Peugeot engine.2627

Pale yellow two-seater lettered POSTES on its door, seen from above the left front, a veteran car behind.
A Peugeot VLV in the yellow livery of the French post office, at the Louwman Museum, The Hague, in April 2011.Photo: Alf van Beem, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A long pale streamlined roadster beside a small aluminium egg car on gravel, a photo panel behind.
Two Arzens cars side by side, Mulhouse, 2016: the 1938 La Baleine and the polished aluminium Œuf électrique of 1942.Photo: Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where the weight went

A pair

Cream two-seater with its one-piece bonnet tipped up and batteries visible inside, show visitors in the background.
A Peugeot VLV at Rétromobile, Paris, in 2009, its bonnet raised over the battery bay.Photo: bibi95, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Open door of an orange car revealing tan pleated seats, a black dashboard and a row of batteries sunk into the floor.
An Elcar, the American Zagato Zele, with its door open on the batteries under the floor, in a 1977 US government photograph.Photo: Martin Brown, NASA (US National Archives), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Golf carts, station cars and the electricity boards

When petrol came back, the electric car shrank to the jobs a short range could do. In Long Beach, California, a firm built the Electra King from 1961, by German Wikipedia’s date, which was in effect a golf cart given a roof and doors.282930 In Britain the push came from the electricity industry.

The Scottish Aviation Scamp began at Prestwick airport, where the battery tugs that pulled the baggage were plugged in between jobs. Dr W. Gordon Watson of the firm’s project department had also noticed wives waiting in cars at his station to drive their commuting husbands home, and that run needed neither range nor speed: his brief asked for 35 mph (56 km/h), at least 25 miles (40 km), and a night’s charge from a household socket.31 Stirling Moss drove the test car at its closing press conference, and nearly 200 enquiries came in.31 Then the Motor Industry Research Association tested one in 1967 and found, among much else, that on bends with an adverse camber it tended to carry straight on; Lucas’s batteries were wearing out in about a year rather than 18 months; and the Electricity Council judged the car “unfit for purpose”. Thirteen were made.31

Ford of Britain built its own Comuta at Dunton, in Essex, the same year, as part of a study of traffic and fumes in towns. Four 85 ampere-hour lead batteries gave it a range of 60 km (37 miles) at a steady 40 km/h, and the Science Museum, which keeps one, counts only two built.3233

The Enfield 8000 went further. It won an Electricity Council competition for a town car, and the Isle of Wight firm that built it belonged to a Greek shipowner, Giannis Goulandris, so production began near Cowes and moved to the island of Syros.10911 Its lead batteries, eight of 12 volts by one account and six by another, weighed over 300 kg (661 lb) of the car’s 975 kg and fed a motor of 8 bhp (6 kW).8911 Autocar found 25 usable miles.10 Of the 120 built, 65 were taken by the Electricity Council and the regional boards, whose meter readers drove them.1011

Small red car parked before a black door guarded by two police officers.
Plate I · 1970s A red Enfield 8000 outside 10 Downing Street, London, in the 1970s.Photo: Enfield Automotive archive, Constantine Adraktas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Yellow tiny electric car on wooden blocks, an aircraft nose above and behind it.
A yellow Scottish Aviation Scamp pre-production car, DTD 141E, under the aircraft at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, in 2008.Photo: DeFacto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A row of small boxy cars stretching along a factory lawn beside a tall building with a large Z sign.
A long line of Zagato Zeles outside the Zagato works at Rho, near Milan, under the firm’s Z.Photo: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The oil-crisis cars, 1972–⁠1986

The oil crisis of 1973 gave the battery car another chance. Zagato, the Milan coachbuilder of low sporting bodies, had shown a tall plastic city car, the Zagato Zele, at Turin in November 1972, and found few takers; in the summer of 1974 it went into small-series production.34 It had no gearbox. A hand selector switched the battery between voltages and a pedal added a second step, which gave six speeds forward.3435 NASA tested one in 1977, and its report, in a poorly legible table, gives about 39 km at a steady 40 km/h.36 About 500 were made by 1976, and in the United States the car was sold as the Elcar.343537

America built far more. Bob Beaumont had run a Chrysler dealership for about 20 years before he sold it to build cars; his Sebring-Vanguard, of Sebring, Florida, was founded in 1973, and its CitiCar was a plastic wedge on lead batteries.1238 NASA’s engineers found that, fully laden, it reached 51 km/h (32 mph), and that held to 29 km/h it managed 85 km (52.8 miles), but flat out only 40 km.13 Consumer Reports called it foolhardy to drive. When officials in Michigan wanted it banned, Beaumont struck the body with a baseball bat and suggested they try an official’s Ford the same way.38 The company went bankrupt, and the car came back as the Comuta-Car, with its batteries moved into the bumpers; with its vans, about 4,400 were built by 1982, and English Wikipedia knows of no North American electric car built after 1945 in greater numbers until the 2010s.1214

France tried again too. The Voiture Électronique Porquerolles was a two-seat tub on three wheels, steered, sped up and stopped with a single stick; on the first cars the two rear wheels each had a motor and the car turned by running one faster than the other, while the series cars kept the stick but steered mechanically.394041 Between 100 and 200 were built, by three different counts.394041 For the Teilhol Citadine, period documents put the output at about 500 between 1974 and 1986; the Lane Motor Museum says only around 30, and no source reconciles them.4243 In Brazil João Gurgel named his Gurgel Itaipu E150 after the great dam then being built; its batteries weighed 320 kg (705 lb) of its 780 kg, and only a pre-series of about 20, or 27, was made before he gave up.444546 Even France’s licence-free cars had an electric strand: of about 30,000 cars built by Erad, about 800 were electric.4748

A man in a check jacket with his hand on the door of a small white boxy car with grey stripes over its nose.
Plate II · 1974 A white Zagato Zele lettered Elcar on its nose, with a man beside it, in 1974.Photo: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Small pale blue wedge-shaped car parked next to a white SUV with its rear doors raised like wings, a man standing between them.
Two generations: a light blue CitiCar parked next to a Tesla Model X, San Francisco, 2016.Photo: Steve Jurvetson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pioneers and quadricycles, 1985–⁠2012

The electric idea reached the British public on 10 January 1985, in the shape of the Sinclair C5.49 A law of 1983 had created the electrically assisted pedal cycle: a tricycle of no more than 60 kg, with pedals, and a motor of 0.25 kW that could not take it past 15 mph.50 It needed no licence, tax or insurance, and could be ridden at 14.49 The AA got about 10 miles from a charge in ordinary use.49 Hoover, which built it at Merthyr Tydfil, stopped production in August 1985, after about 14,000.49

In Denmark the CityEL, born in a tractor works as the Mini-El and renamed after a dispute with British Leyland, makers of the Mini, gave one person a three-wheeled shell; production moved to Aub, in Bavaria, in 1995, and the maker counted more than 6,000 by 2008.5152 The Swiss Twike began as a pedal car for a design competition at Expo 86 in Vancouver, and became a two-seater that its passengers may pedal while a motor does the real work; from the 2008 model year it was claimed as the first series vehicle with lithium-ion batteries, and just over 1,070 had been sold by 2020.535455 The Danish Kewet moved to Oslo and became the Buddy, about 1,500 of them in all.5657 Norway helped: it spared electric cars its taxes and road tolls and let them use the bus lanes.5658

Norway had a car of its own as well. Ford bought the maker of the Think City in 1999, with California’s zero-emission mandate approaching, built 1,005, and gave up when California softened the rule; relaunched, the car survived several bankruptcies before the last was built in August 2012.596061 In Germany the Hotzenblitz, built in the old works at Suhl, ran out of money in June 1996 after about 140 cars.62

London’s electric car of the 2000s came from Bangalore. The REVA, sold in Britain as the G-Wiz, was a heavy quadricycle in European law, so it was exempt from the crash tests a car must pass, and about 750 were on London’s roads by May 2007.6364 That April the Department for Transport ran one into a barrier at 35 mph (56 km/h), the normal test for a car, and reported “serious safety concerns”.6364 Strictly it had failed nothing, since it met every rule for its class.64

Japan and America each wrote a class of their own. Japan’s one-seat minicar, a class below the kei car, may be rated at no more than 0.6 kW, and Toyota’s COMS of 2012 was rated at 0.59 kW, while giving 5 kW at its peak; 7-Eleven took it up to deliver its customers’ shopping.6566 The American low-speed vehicle class, created in 1998 by one account, with belts, lamps and safety glass, was allowed on roads limited to 35 mph, and the GEM that the rule made possible had sold more than 50,000 by 2015.67

A long low silver pod-shaped vehicle with a clear canopy and Lufthansa lettering on grass by the sea, skyscrapers beyond.
Plate III · 1986 Expo 86 in Vancouver: the pedal-driven Twike I in Lufthansa colours, the city behind it.Photo: TWIKE GmbH, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Silver microcar with a yellow cable running to a black Elektrobay charging post on a London pavement.
A G-Wiz on charge at a kerbside post near Covent Garden, London, in April 2008.Photo: Alan Trotter, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The quadricycle and the Chinese mini car, since 2012

The big makers came back with the lithium battery. Renault showed its Twizy as a concept at Frankfurt in September 2009.15 In 2023 auto motor und sport looked back and remarked that Tesla was then still building its Roadster by hand.17 In its 45 km/h form the Twizy could be driven at 14 in France, and by June 2023, the year it ended, Renault had sold 33,340 in 55 countries.151617 Citroën’s Ami, built at Kenitra in Morocco from 2020, went further down the same road: a two-seater held to 45 km/h that could be bought online or in the Fnac and Darty electrical shops, and driven at 14.1868 Citroën’s chief executive, Vincent Cobée, offered it as town transport for everyone, small, all-electric and cheap, with no licence needed.69 About 65,000 had been sold by October 2024.19 China’s numbers made Europe’s look small. Shandong province alone took 330,000 low-speed electric cars in the first eight months of 2016, outselling China’s entire official tally of new-energy vehicles over the same period, and in 2018 six ministries set out to clean the trade up.7071 The Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, launched at Chengdu on 24 July 2020, was not one of them: with 100 km/h it counts as an ordinary car in Chinese law.72 It outsold the Tesla Model 3 in China in August 2020, and sold 395,451 in 2021 and over 1.1 million by February 2023.7273

The bubble car came back too. The Ouboter family, whose firm makes Micro scooters, showed the Microlino, an electric Isetta with a door in its nose, at Geneva in 2016; a deal with the Italian maker Tazzari to build it collapsed when Artega produced a near-copy, and German courts granted injunctions against it in 2019.747576 The Microlino has been built in Turin since 2022, about 3,700 by 2024.7475 Japan’s Toyota C+pod of 2020 was type-designated under the rules for ultra-compact mobility.7778 And not every big maker’s car survives: Renault’s Mobilize Duo, the Twizy’s successor, stopped in December 2025 after 3,544.7980

The pattern holds from Berlin to Liuzhou. The small makers ran out of money or buyers, again and again, and the cars that sold found either a legal niche, in a licence-free class, a Japanese minicar rule, an American low-speed vehicle or a Chinese grey market, or a big maker’s backing. Slaby’s own firm ended as the Berlin branch of Rasmussen’s company, which bought what was left to protect its money.1

Side view of a blue and white bubble car with Microlino and Tazzari EV lettering, its front door raised.
A Microlino prototype, lettered Tazzari EV, in profile with its front door open near Zürich in October 2016.Photo: Nicolás Boullosa, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr
White and black tandem two-seater parked in a marked bay by a planter and a shopfront.
A Renault Twizy parked at Sion, below the Col du Sanetsch, Switzerland, in August 2019.Photo: crash71100, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Smallest to largest

41 cars and 10 maker groups, to scale

Each bar is the car’s length on a 3.5 metre track; the red notch is a Fiat 500.

  1. Erad1978–⁠1997 · France · 4 wheels

    1.69 m

  2. Sinclair C51984–⁠1985 · Britain · 3 wheels

    1.74 m

  3. La Voiture Électronique Porquerolles1968–⁠1976 · France · 3 wheels

    1.80 m

  4. Ford Comuta1967 · Britain · 4 wheels

    2.08 m

  5. Teilhol Citadine1972–⁠1986 · France · 3 wheels

    2.12 m

  6. Zagato Zele1974–⁠1976 · Italy · 4 wheels

    2.13 m

  7. Scottish Aviation Scamp1965–⁠1967 · Britain · 4 wheels

    2.13 m

  8. Slaby-Beringer1919–⁠1924 · Germany · 4 wheels

    2.30 m

  9. Renault Twizy2012–⁠2023 · France · 4 wheels

    2.32 m

  10. Toyota i-Road2013–⁠2015 · Japan · 3 wheels

    2.35 m

  11. CitiCar1974–⁠1982 · United States · 4 wheels

    2.39 m

  12. Toyota COMS2000– · Japan · 4 wheels

    2.40 m

  13. Gordon Murray T.252010–⁠2011 · Britain · 4 wheels

    2.40 m

  14. Citroën Ami2020– · France · 4 wheels

    2.41 m

  15. Mobilize Duo2024–⁠2025 · France · 4 wheels

    2.43 m

  16. Corbin Sparrow1999–⁠2013 · United States · 3 wheels

    2.44 m

  17. Kewet / Buddy1991–⁠2013 · Norway · 4 wheels

    2.44 m

  18. Toyota C+pod2020–⁠2024 · Japan · 4 wheels

    2.49 m

  19. Smart Fortwo1998–⁠2024 · Germany · 4 wheels

    2.50 m

  20. Microlino2022– · Switzerland · 4 wheels

    2.52 m

  21. Electra King1961–⁠1981 · United States · 3 wheels

    2.56 m

  22. Commuter Cars Tango2005– · United States · 4 wheels

    2.59 m

  23. REVA G-Wiz2001–⁠2012 · India · 4 wheels

    2.60 m

  24. Gurgel Itaipu E1501974–⁠1976 · Brazil · 4 wheels

    2.65 m
17 more cars and 10 more maker groupsFewer

  1. Twike1995– · Switzerland · 3 wheels

    2.65 m

  2. Peugeot VLV1941–⁠1945 · France · 4 wheels

    2.67 m

  3. CityEl1987–⁠2018 · Denmark · 3 wheels

    2.74 m

  4. Ligier JS502012– · France · 4 wheels

    2.83 m

  5. Enfield 80001973–⁠1976 · Britain · 4 wheels

    2.85 m

  6. Tazzari Zero2009–? · Italy · 4 wheels

    2.88 m

  7. Arcimoto FUV2019–⁠2023 · United States · 3 wheels

    2.90 m

  8. Wuling Hongguang Mini EV2020– · China · 4 wheels

    2.92 m

  9. ElectraMeccanica Solo2018–⁠2023 · Canada · 3 wheels

    3.10 m

  10. VAZ-1111 Oka1987–⁠2008 · Soviet Union · 4 wheels

    3.20 m

  11. Aixam1984– · France · 4 wheels

  12. Ardex1952–⁠1955 · France · 4 wheels

  13. Autelec1940–⁠1943 · France

  14. GEM (Global Electric Motorcars)1998– · United States · 4 wheels

  15. JDM1981–⁠2014 · France · 4 wheels

  16. L’Œuf électrique1942 · France · 3 wheels

  17. Think City1999–⁠2012 · Norway · 4 wheels

  18. American city-car prototypes1959–⁠1989 · Several countries · 4 wheels

    6 makers

  19. Britain’s forgotten 1950s microcars1948–⁠1969 · Britain

    12 makers

  20. Chinese low-speed electric vehicles2000– · China · 4 wheels

    3 makers

  21. Electric microcars of the Americas since 19902001– · Several countries · 4 wheels

    8 makers

  22. Europe’s small electric microcar makers since 19901993– · Several countries

    10 makers

  23. French licence-free car makers of the 1970s and 1980s1970–⁠1994 · France

    14 makers

  24. Hungarian microcars1946–⁠1996 · Hungary

    6 makers

  25. Japan’s ultra-compact mobility and mini-car class1997– · Japan

    6 makers

  26. Micro vans and utility microcars since 19901992– · Several countries

    8 makers

  27. Microcar concept cars since 19901992–⁠2025 · Several countries

    11 makers

Pictures

17 photographs

Electric microcars 17

  • A slatted varnished-wood car with green wings and seats, a cream canvas hood and spoked wheels on a grey tiled floor. Opens a larger view

    1 Wooden-bodied Slaby-Beringer two-seater of 1924 with green wings and a canvas hood at the Audi museum mobile, Ingolstadt, Germany, in August 2014.

  • Small cream two-seater with a single round headlamp in its rounded nose, cycle-type front wings and a beige fabric hood, on a museum floor. Opens a larger view

    2 A cream Peugeot VLV with its hood raised at the Musée de l’Aventure Peugeot, Sochaux, in April 2016.

  • High view of a pale blue three-wheeled tub with two black seats flanking a central stick, a round headlamp on its nose. Opens a larger view

    3 A Porquerolles at Autoworld in Brussels in 2011, seen from above with its two seats and control stick.

  • Pale blue egg-shaped three-wheeler with black lower body, its whole front swung up like a hatch, in a white and blue hall. Opens a larger view

    4 A Teilhol Citadine with its top-hinged nose door raised, at the Musée auto-moto-vélo in Châtellerault in 2022.

  • A small red angular car with a large flat windscreen, square headlamps and a white ITAIPU ELÉTRICO sill stripe. Opens a larger view

    5 Red Gurgel Itaipu E150 electric car from the front quarter, parked in a street in Brazil.

12 more picturesFewer pictures
  • Orange-red wedge-shaped electric car with a deep black front bumper and a radio aerial, beside a charging post on a museum floor. Opens a larger view

    6 A 1980 Comuta-Car, with its battery-box bumpers, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2012.

  • Orange boxy two-seater with black bonnet stripes, a black bumper and round headlamps, parked in front of a green roller door. Opens a larger view

    7 An orange Elcar, the US-market Zele, from the front three-quarter in the 1977 US government test photographs.

  • Five people in a row of white electric tricycles on a tarmac yard. Opens a larger view

    8 Members of the C5 Alive owners’ group riding a line of Sinclair C5s at Brooklands in 2014.

  • Orange three-wheeler with a white roof and black lower band standing on frost-covered grass beside a white frosted bush. Opens a larger view

    9 An orange-and-black closed-top CityEl on a frosty drive in Denmark in December 2007.

  • Three small electric cars, white, red with snowflakes and cream, parked nose to tail outside shop windows. Opens a larger view

    10 Kewet and Buddy electric cars parked outside shops in central Oslo, Norway, in April 2012.

  • Light-blue small two-door car with round headlamps and its tailgate raised, parked on grass at a show. Opens a larger view

    11 A blue 2000 Ford TH!NK City (A266) at the Hebden Bridge Vintage Weekend, England, in August 2022.

  • Red rounded two-seater with its door open and a HOTZENBLITZ EL plate, parked on gravel under trees. Opens a larger view

    12 A red Hotzenblitz at the Classic-Gala, Schwetzingen, Germany, in September 2021.

  • Green and white single-seat electric microcar with open sides and a 7-Eleven logo, parked on a gravel lot. Opens a larger view

    13 A Toyota COMS B·COM Delivery in 7-Eleven livery parked in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2013.

  • Blue nose of a small electric car with a yellow cable plugged into a socket on a brick wall, grass below. Opens a larger view

    14 A blue GEM recharging from a wall socket on the Duke University campus, Durham, North Carolina, in September 2008.

  • Grey cube-shaped two-seater with orange wheel inserts on a wide road, a green and white city bus and a tourist trike behind. Opens a larger view

    15 A Citroën Ami driving in Paris traffic, France, in August 2023, with an RATP bus behind.

  • Pale green boxy city car with Almaty Parking lettering and a roof light, parked at a street corner. Opens a larger view

    16 A green second-generation Wuling Hongguang Mini EV of the Almaty municipal parking service on Nazarbayev Avenue, Almaty, Kazakhstan, in April 2025.

  • Red and white bubble car with chrome handle and round lamp pods on a white show floor. Opens a larger view

    17 A red and white Microlino at the Geneva Motor Show, Switzerland, in March 2018.

Picture credits (17)
  1. 1 Glen Bowman, CC BY 2.0
  2. 2 Alf van Beem, CC0 1.0
  3. 3 Thomas Quine, CC BY 2.0
  4. 4 Jean-Marie Vugnon (2), CC BY-SA 4.0
  5. 5 Marcelo Bezerra Cavalcanti, edited by Mr.choppers, CC BY 3.0
  6. 6 Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0
  7. 7 Martin Brown, NASA (US National Archives), Public domain
  8. 8 Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0
  9. 9 Allan Høiberg, CC BY-SA 2.0
  10. 10 Bengt Oberger, CC BY-SA 3.0
  11. 11 DieselFordMondeo, CC BY-SA 4.0
  12. 12 Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0
  13. 13 Daniel Davis, CC BY 2.0
  14. 14 Ildar Sagdejev (Specious), CC BY-SA 4.0
  15. 15 Charles, CC BY 2.0
  16. 16 Nikolai Bulykin, CC BY-SA 4.0
  17. 17 Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0

The cars

Profiles

29 more cars and 10 more maker groupsFewer

Sources

Numbered as in the text

Sources are given as plain text; the links are on the Credits page.

  1. German Wikipedia, Slaby-Beringer, read in full. Used as a lead.
  2. SB-Automobil-Gesellschaft, Charlottenburg, brochure Der elektrische SB-Einsitzer Modell 1922 (System Slaby-Beringer), read in full.
  3. Automobile (1989), a German illustrated reference, entry “1920 Slaby-Beringer Elektrowagen”, snippets only.
  4. German Wikipedia, Peugeot VLV, read in full with its infobox. Used as a lead; it cites Schmarbeck, Alle Peugeot Automobile 1890–⁠1990 (1990).
  5. Philippe Schwoerer, article on the Peugeot VLV, with a drive in a restored car, Automobile Propre, 2016, read in full.
  6. French Wikipedia, Peugeot VLV, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites J.-M. Normand in Le Monde, 15 August 2023.
  7. Lane Motor Museum, “Peugeot VLV, 1942”, collection page.
  8. Jonny Smith, “Enfield 8000: A History Lesson”, Flux Capacitor website, an owner’s history with original technical data.
  9. Lancaster Insurance, “The pioneer electric car – the Enfield 8000”, 28 September 2022.
  10. English Wikipedia, Enfield 8000, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites Autocar of 21 February 1976 and the documentary A Tale of Two Isles (2014).
  11. Warren Whitmore, “Secret Isle of Wight: The Enfield 8000”, Island Echo, 24 July 2022.
  12. English Wikipedia, Citicar, read in full. Used as a lead; it draws on owners’ and service manuals and the CitiCar Roster.
  13. F. J. Stenger, J. M. Bozek and R. F. Soltis, Results of Baseline Tests of the EVA Metro Sedan, Citi-Car, Jet Industries Electra-Van, CDA Town Car, and Otis P‑500 Van, NASA TM X‑73638, Lewis Research Center, October 1976.
  14. Lancaster Insurance, “Staying Positive: The CitiCar walked so Tesla could run”, 14 April 2023.
  15. English Wikipedia, Renault Twizy, read in full. Used as a lead.
  16. “Bye-bye Twizy”, electrive, 17 July 2023.
  17. “Renault Twizy Produktionsende 2023”, auto motor und sport, July 2023.
  18. English Wikipedia, Citroën Ami (electric vehicle), read in full. Used as a lead.
  19. “Citroën auf dem Autosalon Paris: Viel Neues – und ein heimlicher Bestseller”, autohaus.de, 16 October 2024.
  20. RM Sotheby’s, catalogue of RM Auctions’ sale of the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, 2013, lot 287, “1942 Peugeot VLV”.
  21. l’Automobile Ancienne, “Autélec (1940-1943)”, 6 November 2015.
  22. l’Automobile Ancienne, “Les voitures électriques sous l’occupation”, 3 November 2015.
  23. German Wikipedia, Pierre Faure; it cites Linz and Schrader, and Georgano.
  24. German Wikipedia, Électro-Renard; it cites Linz and Schrader, and Georgano.
  25. The original microcarfan.com (2006–⁠2016), marque page “ARDEX”, one collector’s account, read from the archived copy.
  26. Musée des Arts et Métiers, “L’œuf électrique de Paul Arzens”, collection text.
  27. l’Automobile Ancienne, “L’Oeuf Electrique de Paul Arzens (1942)”, 9 November 2015.
  28. German Wikipedia, Electra King, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites John Gunnell’s Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946–⁠1975 (2002).
  29. Small Cars Club, “B&Z Electra King”.
  30. Jason Torchinsky, “B&Z Electra King: The Jalopnik Classic Review”, Jalopnik, 13 July 2012.
  31. English Wikipedia, Scottish Aviation Scamp, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites Design no. 211 (1966), W. G. Watson’s unpublished history of the project, and the MIRA evaluation (1967) and endurance (1968) reports.
  32. Science Museum Group, “Ford Comuta Electric Car, 1967”, object 1971-476/1.
  33. Mac’s Motor City Garage, “Electric Pioneer: The 1967 Ford Comuta”, 2018; it draws on Ford’s engineering literature.
  34. Italian Wikipedia, Zagato Zele, read in full; it cites La Stampa of 8 November 1972 and 30 October 1974.
  35. English Wikipedia, Zagato Zele, read in full.
  36. N. B. Sargent, E. A. Maslowski, R. Slavik and R. F. Soltis, Baseline Tests of the Zagato Elcar Electric Passenger Vehicle, NASA TM-73764, Lewis Research Center, October 1977.
  37. Lane Motor Museum, “Elcar 1975”, collection page.
  38. “Bob Beaumont, at 79; creator of CitiCar, 1970s electric vehicle”, Boston Globe (New York Times News Service), 30 October 2011.
  39. Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, “1969 La Voiture Electronique Porquerolles”, tour page, read via the Internet Archive (2015).
  40. automobile-propre.com, “Quand L’Automobile essaye une Jarret Porquerolles, en 1972”, a retelling of the road test in L’Automobile, August 1972.
  41. Lane Motor Museum, “Jarret La Voiture Electronique – 1969”, collection page.
  42. automobile-propre.com, “Teilhol et sa gamme de véhicules électriques commercialisés entre 1974 et 1986”, based on period documents and press.
  43. Lane Motor Museum, “Teilhol Citadine – 1974”, collection page.
  44. Fabiano Pereira, “Clássicos: Grandes Brasileiros: Gurgel Itaipu”, Quatro Rodas, April 2007, archived copy.
  45. Autoesporte, “Gurgel Itaipu foi o primeiro carro elétrico nacional, mas morreu por problemas que existem até hoje”, 2 April 2021, updated 18 April 2024.
  46. English Wikipedia, Gurgel Itaipu, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites Quatro Rodas (April 2007).
  47. English Wikipedia, Automobiles ERAD, citing Les Échos and a SECMA history page.
  48. German Wikipedia, Automobiles Erad, citing Linz and Schrader, Georgano and René Bellu’s Automobilia.
  49. English Wikipedia, Sinclair C5, read in full. Used as a lead; it is referenced to Rodney Dale’s history, The Times, The Guardian, the Financial Times, the AA and Which?.
  50. The Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles Regulations 1983, SI 1983/1168, as made.
  51. German Wikipedia, CityEL, read in full with its references.
  52. heise autos, “Läuft länger: CityEL jetzt mit Lithium-Akku”, 12 September 2008.
  53. German Wikipedia, Twike, read in full.
  54. English Wikipedia, Twike, read in full with its references.
  55. Twike Klub, “Wie entstand das TWIKE”, the owners’ club’s history of the Twike I to III.
  56. English Wikipedia, Buddy (electric car), read in full.
  57. AVEM, “eBuddy – La petite voiture électrique Norvégienne à EVS 27”, 24 November 2013.
  58. ElBil Norge AS, “The new electric car from Norway”, the maker’s English page, archived copy of 3 August 2007.
  59. English Wikipedia, Think City, read in full.
  60. English Wikipedia, Think Global, read in part.
  61. German Wikipedia, Think City.
  62. German Wikipedia, Hotzenblitz, read in full.
  63. English Wikipedia, REVAi, read in full.
  64. Tom Foot, “Green bubble cars safety fears”, West End Extra, 11 May 2007.
  65. English Wikipedia, Toyota COMS.
  66. 「1人乗りEV『コムス』はコスト低減で60万円以下に、セブンイレブンが宅配に採用」 (The one-seat EV COMS comes in under ¥600,000 through cost cutting; Seven-Eleven adopts it for deliveries), MONOist (ITmedia), 3 July 2012.
  67. English Wikipedia, Global Electric Motorcars; its references include Polaris and the Federal Register.
  68. French Wikipedia, Citroën Ami (2020), read in full. Used as a lead.
  69. Fred Lambert, report of the Ami’s launch, Electrek, 28 February 2020.
  70. Stephen Edelstein, “China to regulate, rein in low-speed electric cars used in rural areas”, Green Car Reports (on Yahoo Autos), 7 November 2016, citing Bloomberg.
  71. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other ministries, 关于加强低速电动车管理的通知 (Notice on strengthening the management of low-speed electric vehicles), 2 November 2018.
  72. English Wikipedia, Wuling Hongguang Mini EV, with its reference list. Used as a lead.
  73. GM Authority, “New Wuling EV the Hong Guang launched in China” (July 2020) and “Wuling Hong Guang EV outsells Tesla Model 3 in China in August” (September 2020), seen as search results only.
  74. English Wikipedia, Microlino, read in full, with its infobox and references. Used as a lead.
  75. German Wikipedia, Microlino, read in full. Used as a lead.
  76. “No go for little Karo(lino) aka Microlino”, electrive, 28 September 2019.
  77. Toyota Motor Corporation, release on the limited launch of the C+pod, 25 December 2020.
  78. English Wikipedia, Toyota C+pod, read in full. Used as a lead.
  79. French Wikipedia, Mobilize Duo. Used as a lead.
  80. Inovev, “Renault is halting production of the Mobilize Duo and Bento”, 8 January 2026.