How Europe’s EV makers shrank their product to challenge the bloated SUVs | Smaller, cheaper cars built for narrow city streets are becoming more stylish – but require careful design decisions
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/21/europe-ev-shrank-challenge-suv-smaller-chinaOpen linkView original on slrpnk.net
astonished there is zero mention of the kei class of Japanese cars. This class is deliberately made small, and I've been driving the first kei class EV for years: the Mitsubishi Minicab-MiEV, which were first produced over 15 years ago. Yes the original battery was small, but I got the battery pack upgrade (from an AU EV specialist) which is 30kwh, I live rurally and with much greater distances between fast chargers than you would find in Europe. And it is /fine/.
In the US, you're only allowed to import quite old kei vehicles. I think they need to be over 20 years old
25, I believe
yikes!! that's nuts. In AU they seem to need to be "secondhand" to be imported if not an official dealer import, and the system recently got an overhaul to make everything worse/harder. I just wish we could harmonise with EU rules already, it's so damn stupid. Plus each state in AU has different rego rules and costs. Insanely inefficient and stupid. But at least we CAN import them, even though we are a tiny minority amongst the child-killers.
I think it's a really great idea. As long as range anxiety is a thing, as long as batteries are so expensive, the small EV might be the best second car for a family in addition to a lot of forward-looking people's only one. The car you go grocery shopping with, or run errands, or commute.
My Hyundai Inster is so spacious but it's a pretty small car. Very narrow, somewhat high and a bit short. I'm a big and tall man and I can sit behind myself in that small car. Small EVs make so much more sense.
Mr. Bean car, here we go
BMW already has electric minis ased on the BMW i3. Not as mini as the the old minis.
Twongi in the banner image! We're desperately waiting for ours to arrive.