Tiny electric vehicles
More like a cartoon (geddit?) than a grown-up vehicle these electric machines are being conjured up in engineers’ minds around the world. They are described as quadricycles which are nicknamed quad bikes in the UK. Can I be the first to propose ‘quikes’ as a new abbreviation for them? The term quad bike has always bothered me with its illogicalness (and yes, that is a word). We have bikes, trikes and now (thanks to me) also quikes. Makes sense, right?
With a max speed of around 30mph these are absolute city dwellers. Incredibly cheap to run and they can be driven on a moped licence by a 16-year-old but still require road tax and an MOT.
Some of these quikes are only available to pre-order but others have already hit the tarmac. Some have even been spotted in my hometown in the Southwest of England. Ooh arr. Ooh arr.
The Citroen launched the Ami in France, bien sûr, in 2020 and has since sold 65,000 of these petites voitures. Available to buy in the UK at around £7695 these are by far the most common of this new breed.
The super cute Microlino from Switzerland’s Micro Mobility Company joins this elite group with a price tag of about £17990 making it more than twice the cost of the Ami. Is the eye-catching design worth £10,000? Only you and your wallet can decide. Wallflowers need not apply as exiting the vehicle requires you to emerge as if from a giant birthday cake via the front door which swings upwards. I guess you could say it has c(h)arisma…
Renault produced a competitor, the Twizy which is no longer manufactured but can be bought second-hand in the UK. Their updated model the Mobilize Duo is designed for car sharing schemes and not available commercially.
Other similar options from around the world which aren’t yet available in the UK include the Silence S04 which calls itself a nanocar and claims to the smallest in this class. It is being sold by Nissan with a price of £11,299, only not quite yet by the looks of it.
The City Transformer has been produced by an Israeli team and features extendable axels in order to improve stability at speed but allowing it to park in what is basically a shopping trolley sized space.
From the Netherlands comes the solar powered Solar City car which even in northern Europe can extract about 22 km of power from the sun per day. Free-dom indeed. All these vehicles are coming (slowly – and silently) to a city near you…
Teeny tiny electric vehicles
If a motorbike and a mobility scooter had babies they would look like this litter of undeterminable mutts. The Carver has been, ahem, cornering the market since the early 2000’s when a genuinely baby-faced Richard Hammond test drove it in Series 2 of Top Gear! Back before I was born! (Joke.). Watch the joy on his face here. Looking like a covered motorbike with an extra wheel at the back it is able to lean into corners with such style it makes people laugh out loud as they circle roundabouts (people being filmed anyway). A second passenger can be shoe-horned into the back if you need someone to chuckle along with you. These narrow vehicles can be parked in a motorbike space (or you could stick four of them in a regular car space). Designed in the Netherlands and then adopted by a Danish company they are collecting orders (at a cost of 13,000€) for a relaunch in spring 2026. Or you can pick up a second-hand version in Europe for a few thousand euros.
The Triggo is a similar innovative design coming from the lab of a Polish team, using four wheels instead of three. Cunning engineering allows the wheels to move outwards making it possible to travel at speeds of 90kmph, I know right, almost like a proper car! And then they retract as the vehicle slows which allows it to squeeze between buses and all the dudes stuck in their modified horse-drawn carts. Unfortunately not yet available to buy.
The Toyota I-Road is a similar vehicle but is shyer about its motorcycle influences. It was launched in 2013 and was available in various cities under a vehicle sharing scheme but sadly is not being manufactured.
And lastly, if two people is one too many for you then check out these vehicles designed for one: the Sole which looks like a coffin stuck on a sack truck (view it here) or Renault’s concept car which appears to have been modelled on a fork lift truck (view it here).
Slightly larger but still weeny e-bike vehicles
These beauties are ebikes disguising themselves as elf cars. Around the world in 80 prototypes. Hungary is building the City Q which is apparently already on sale in Germany though Google seems reluctant to try to sell me one, which is, frankly, uncharacteristic.
Over in Canada you can buy the Veemo for $7000 USD but you’re going to have a really late night if you cycle it back. (Pictured is the cargo version). Sweden has developed the Velove Armadillo which is kind of a cargo trike. These all require some pedal power in addition to their batteries but this means they are not subject to tax, insurance or MOT so the freedom of the road is yours in exchange for some leg action.
Teeny weeny tiny machines that can’t even be described as vehicles
In this zone are the electric scooters, the Segways, and the hoverboards which are popular but caught in a regulatory bind being neither legal on the road or the pavement! Unless they are part of a one of the many successful trials taking place in which case they appear to be fine. I’ve had some fun on them in Bristol but sadly they are not allowed onto the Bristol to Bath cycle path which seems counterintuitive if you are travelling at a similar speed to the cyclists already present. There is obviously a role for them to play in our transport system as they are a cheap and popular way to navigate our cities, oh and they somehow make you feel cool (I’m pretty sure that I looked exactly like the girl in the photo).
Read here for how to coax these beauties onto our roads and luxuriate in the car(e)free lifestyle that they offer.
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