Micro vans and utility microcars since 1990

Narrow electric load-carriers became the standard tool of French and Italian towns for streets too tight for an ordinary van.source 1source 2 Two firms founded in the 1990s, Alkè in Padua and Goupil in the Lot-et-Garonne, made them their business, and Aixam’s utility brand, Mega, joined them. Later the big makers took the passenger seat out of their two-seat electric quadricycles and put a box in its place: Renault in the Twizy, Citroën in the Ami and Renault again in its Mobilize Duo.source 3source 4source 5 In Japan, Mitsubishi made an electric version of its kei van.source 6 They range from the 2,320 mm (91 in) of the Twizy Cargo to the 4,800 mm (189 in) of Goupil’s largest, which puts some of them well beyond microcar size; they appear as a class (more in electric microcars). They are taken in the order the vehicles first appeared.

Achille Salvan founded Alkè in Padua in 1992, to build electric utility vehicles; it makes diesel trucks too.source 2 Its electric range today runs from the small ATX 340E and ATX 440S to the ATX 440M and ATX 480, with a double-cab ATX ED and explosion-proof ATEX versions.source 7 It sells through more than 30 dealers, with ePowerTrucks as its importer in Britain.source 2 In Utrecht an Alkè worked in the Cargohopper, a solar-powered scheme for deliveries in the city centre.source 2 No dimensions or production figures for its trucks have been found.

Pascal Duclos and Thierry Zerbato founded Goupil Industrie in 1996 at Bourran, in the Lot-et-Garonne, to build narrow electric utility trucks.source 1source 8 Its G3 came in 2001, and its G5 in 2010, which Goupil called the first electric vehicle with a dual-mode plug-in hybrid option.source 8source 1 In 2010 its sales were about US$25 million, in 18 countries.source 1 The American firm Polaris Industries, which already built small electric vehicles under the GEM name, announced on 17 November 2011 that it would buy Goupil; the factory and its staff stayed at Bourran.source 1source 8

By the trade press’s account, the range today begins with the G2 of 2017, 3.20 m (10 ft 6 in) long and only 1.1 m (3 ft 7 in) wide, with a payload of 600 kg. The G4 of 2019, the best-seller, is 1.2 m wide and 3,600 or 4,150 mm long, and runs up to about 160 km (99 miles) on a charge; the G6 of 2020 is 1.70 m wide and 4.80 m long, and carries up to 1,200 kg.source 8 The photographs on this page show Goupils at work in Paris, Amsterdam, the Basque Country and Weymouth.

Mega began in 1992 as the sporting brand of the licence-free car maker Aixam, and became its brand of working vehicles: a diesel, the Multitruck, from 2003, and an electric, the e-Worker, from 2011, told more fully on the Aixam page under Mega.source 9 When Ransomes Jacobsen became Mega’s sole importer for Britain, about 2013, the e-Worker came on two wheelbases with a payload of 631–872 kg, up to 3.5 m³ of load space and battery packs giving up to 110 km; the Multitruck 600 diesel carried up to 500 kg.source 10 What Van? suggested them for refuse rounds and for campuses, hotels, leisure parks, military bases, airports and factories. Their dimensions have not been found.source 10

Piaggio’s Ape Calessino, the passenger version of its three-wheeled van, was revived in 2007 with a diesel,source 11 and in 2009 Piaggio offered it as the Ape Calessino Electric Lithium, with an electric motor and lithium batteries in place of the 422 cc diesel. It was finished in blue and white, with cream upholstery piped in blue, white-walled tyres on chrome wheels, and tropical-wood trim.source 12 English Wikipedia says 100 were built.source 11 It carried passengers rather than goods, and is the only three-wheeler among them.

Mitsubishi tested the Minicab MiEV from October 2010 and launched it in Japan in December 2011, an electric version of the Minicab kei van, and later of the truck as well.source 6 About 13,000 Minicab MiEVs had been built by December 2023, when the van was renamed the Minicab EV, with a new motor and battery and a range of 180 km (112 miles); from the same month it was also assembled in Indonesia, at Cikarang.source 6

Renault announced the Twizy Cargo in June 2013: a Renault Twizy whose rear passenger seat gave way to a lockable box of 180 litres, for up to 75 kg.source 4 German Wikipedia gives 156 litres, and says it was sold until July 2019.source 13 The Cargo 45 had a 4 kW motor and was held to 45 km/h (28 mph); the Cargo 80 reached 80 km/h (50 mph).source 4

Citroën launched the My Ami Cargo in May 2021, a commercial version of the Citroën Ami for deliveries over the last mile, plumbers, electricians, locksmiths and local councils.source 3 It is 2.41 m (7 ft 11 in) long and 1.39 m wide. In place of the passenger seat is a moulded polypropylene module in seven parts, holding 260 litres and 140 kg, and with the Ami’s other spaces there are 400 litres in all. The battery and motor are the Ami’s, 5.5 kWh and 6 kW; it charges from a household socket in three hours and runs 75 km (47 miles).source 3

The Bento is the cargo version of the Mobilize Duo, the Twizy’s successor, built by Renault at Tangier, in Morocco, with about 1 m³ (35 cu ft) of load space; the Duo is 1,300 mm (51 in) wide and 2,430 mm (96 in) long.source 5 Both were announced for Britain in 2024, for sale in 2025. In December 2025 Renault stopped building the Duo, citing limited profitability, and cut 80 of Mobilize’s 450 jobs.source 5

These are working vehicles, and no club, auction result or collectors’ market has been found for them. The photographs on this page show Goupils in Paris, Amsterdam, the Basque Country, Weymouth and Germany, e-Workers at Zürich Zoo and Bad Zwischenahn and Minicab MiEVs in Japan.