Pricey EV Microcar is "Fun" to Drive

­Remember those micro-sized smart cars that were popular at the dawn of the modern age of EVs? The ones derisively known as “toy cars”? Well, with the increasing electrification of global fleets and intensifying urbanization – and all the pratfalls of congestion – microcars are apparently making a comeback.

Take the Italian-made Microlino, profiled in a piece for The Verge. The author lives in Amsterdam, where all public space is at a premium and urban obstacles are an omnipresent concern for motorists driving anything larger than a bicycle.

Speaking of which, the Microlino “bubble car” is almost comically small – at 95.9 inches long, it’s about 40% larger than the average bicycle, and you fully expect a troupe of clowns to step out (though the author repeatedly describes it as “fun” to drive and recounts being complimented on his grand entrance by a stylish urbanite).

Course, many of the familiar issues remain for a class of vehicle that aren’t even legally “cars”, at least in the U.S. (but “low-speed vehicles (LSVs), which according to Electrek, have fewer regulatory requirements compared to highway-capable vehicles).

Though lord knows why anyone would want to take one of these vehicles on the highway, given their leisurely pace (the Microlino goes up to 55 mph) and low survivability in any sort of high-speed collision.

It gets up to 142 miles/charge, though with its size and speed, it’s not exactly practical for anything other than city and backroads travel. On top of that, it’ll run you just north of 20K, which is pricey even for a microcar, so it’s pretty much only suitable for city dwellers with money to burn who can’t picture leaving urban environments on a regular basis.

And despite the author’s proclamations of “fun,” it doesn’t seem like an enjoyable experience – “The motor has a distinct whine, the phone holder rattles when empty, the wiper motor is noisy, and the fan has two settings: loud or louder.”

Oh, and in the author’s experience, it suffered a complete power failure after sitting in a 11kWh public charger for about four hours (and the main display rebooted once). But, uh…fun?

All told, it’s no wonder that, as of 2023, there was only a single street-legal microcar in the U.S. – some microcars (not the Microlino, but others) tick the affordability box, but for what they offer and hope to accomplish, there’s far safer and far more practical EVs for urban environments.