There is a need to scrap the “highway-centric” model of urban development and prioritize the ease and convenience of local trips. Most car trips are short trips carrying just one person. Most of the energy is wasted on carrying the vehicle’s own weight. Oversized vehicles are the root cause of urban congestion, pollution, waste of energy, material, and public space. As cities everywhere move toward a high-density, low-speed, low-impact model, it calls for a new type of personal vehicle to be created for people to get around conveniently. Microcars are one solution.
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Microcars are the smallest size of four-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs). When unoccupied, these vehicles have an average weight of between 100 and 500 kilograms. Depending on the vehicle type and local regulations, their maximum speed varies from 25 to 90 kilometers per hour. From a technical standpoint, these cars are easy to make, which explains why they have often been produced by small firms which have small factories. However, some larger OEMs like Renault and Citroen have also shown interest by launching their own models. The IDTechEx report, “Micro EVs 2023-2043: Electric Two-Wheelers, Three-Wheelers, and Microcars”, benchmarks over 25 models of microcars from various countries on key metrics like motor power, battery capacity, and range.
As with any new form of mobility, many buzzwords are used to categorize the variations currently available on the microcar market. Generally, the distinguishing features of microcars are i) compact size and lightweight and ii) top speed limited to urban environments, putting them in the category of Micro EV. IDTechEx sees microcars fitting in between electric cars and electric mopeds on the mobility spectrum. Even then, there can be a lot of variation in terms of what a microcar looks like or is categorized by. Some other terms that may be used to describe a microcar regionally include quadricycles (EU and UK), Neighbourhood EVs (US), and Kei cars (Japan).
SOURCE: PR Newswire