Driving around central London in a tiny Microlino electric car, barely visible among the big SUVs, it’s surprising to be the center of so much attention. “Yes, Lego car!” shouts a pier.
Created by Micro, the Swiss family-owned company behind mini-micro kick scooters, and modeled after the bubble cars that had a brief heyday in the 1950s, the two-seater is just 2.5 meters long – a little smaller than a Smart car. The most unusual feature is its single door (there is also a rear hatch to access the trunk), which is at the front. The windscreen and bonnet open to allow you access.
The Microlino goes on sale in the UK this month, bucking a trend that is pushing the car industry in the opposite direction. Despite global warming and the warnings of environmental scientists, the demand for ever larger cars continues to grow.
Nearly half of global car sales were sport utility vehicles (SUVs) in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a respected forecaster. The definition of SUV can be vague (usually something to do with a higher seating position and off-road styling), but the IEA this week said that “the shift towards increasingly larger and heavier cars ” is “the defining automotive trend of the early 21st centurystr century”.
Small cars are still a rarity and the Microlino is enough to cause a stir. Countless people double-cross, 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 thumbs up; a taxi driver suggests it might help this journalist’s romantic life.
It feels right at home zipping around town, although with a range of 136 miles and a top speed of 56 miles per hour, it can manage longer jaunts.
Squeezed into a small space between a Bentley and a Land Rover Defender, the Microlino is parked opposite under the watchful eye of a passerby who happens to be the owner of both luxury cars. This is in the posh London neighborhood that gave the Chelsea tractor its name, where four-wheel drive has become standard issue even if residents rarely need off-road vehicles to get to and from the shops.
However, the SUV’s reach now goes far beyond the Chelsea. David Bailey, a professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham, said various pressures had contributed towards bigger cars. The customer’s request for space and a commanding seating position is part of it. The fix is another: airbags and emissions control systems (such as AdBlue for diesel) add a larger percentage to costs in smaller cars.
“If a firm makes a small car that takes up space on the production line, and that’s an opportunity cost where they can make a bigger car more profitably,” Bailey said. However, he added, “if you achieve it in volume, you can still make a good profit margin.”
Even the Mini has outlived its name. Perhaps Britain’s best-known car, it was conceived at a time when post-war fuel rationing made efficiency attractive. The original was 3.05 meters long. Then, in a reboot in 2011, it grew to 3.7 meters. One of the latest versions, the steroidal electric Mini Countryman (“Biggest Mini Ever”) has more in common with a Land Rover, at 4.4 meters.
Several other brands have followed suit. Smart’s Fortwo was the most popular small car on European roads, but the new electric models (under part Chinese ownership) are significantly larger with five seats.
The results of car growth are not good for the environment. Two hundred pounds or more in extra weight for SUVs plus the extra drag from a larger frontal area means burning more fossil fuels. This increases carbon emissions by 20%, the IEA said. A quarter of the global increase in diesel demand last year can be attributed to petrol SUVs. Electric SUVs use far more valuable minerals like lithium, nickel and cobalt than smaller vehicles, making decarbonisation goals more difficult.
Larger vehicles also add to tire pollution, and they make pedestrian deaths much more likely, especially for women and children.
And they take up more space. SUVs need 0.3 extra square meters, which increases parking requirements and damages city streets. In contrast, the tiny Microlino can slip into the tiniest of gaps.
Colin Walker, head of transport at the Institute for Energy and Climate Intelligence, hopes the imminent launch of smaller, cheaper electric models such as the Renault 5 and the £14,995 Dacia Spring will help speed up the transition away from fossil fuels.
“One of the main barriers that is holding people back is the lack of smaller, cheaper EVs,” he said. “I would argue that [manufacturers] were a little slow in trying to build these models.”
Of the major Western manufacturers, only Stellantis – owner of Citroën, Peugeot, Chrysler, Vauxhall and others – has entered the truly tiny electric car segment. His £8,095 Citroën Ami has gained something of a cult following despite its 28mph top speed and 46mile range. It’s particularly popular with high school students in France, where the self-proclaimed “object of urban mobility” is classified as a light quad bike, meaning it can be ridden by anyone aged 14 and over without a full licence. .
However, it is China that is extending its growing dominance of electric cars into the realm of small 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 venture between SAIC and General Motors of the US, which offers style SUV in a small package.
For slightly larger hatchbacks, the competition is fierce. SAIC’s MG4 has already taken the UK market by storm, where the brand originates. BYD’s impressive Dolphin is expected to make a big splash in the small family car market.
Merlin Ouboter, who oversaw the Microlino project and whose father, Wim, made Micro a household name with its scooters, hopes it can steal a march on European rivals in the small car segment (albeit a price premium of £22,000 and some Poor parts suggest there is a fair way to be a mass seller).
“Most of the cars we see on the road today are completely over-engineered for their everyday use case,” said Ouboter. The Microlino targets the vast majority of journeys (94% in the UK) that are less than 25 miles. For the rest, he foresees greater use of shared or rented cars.
James Nix of the Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment says other governments should emulate France, which imposes higher parking charges in Paris for large cars and higher sales tax nationally. That could help stem the annual swelling of new car sizes to the scale of metal monsters in the US.
“Do we as Europeans want to repeat the evolution of the North American car fleet?” Nix asked. “I don’t think that question has been asked at the political level yet.”
