If the Microlino looks familiar, that’s no coincidence. The electric city car was designed to look like the classic Isetta and the company has been teasing their modern reincarnation for a while. To start 2021, Microlino has completed its latest prototype and the company is setting out its timeline for the coming months that will see production start before the year is out.
The car you see driving around in these
pictures is a closer-to-production tester called the prototype 2.0. It has
swapped out prototype 1.0’s tubular frame for a stiffer and safer -but no
heavier- pressed-steel frame, as you can see in pictures.
Although it’s still missing a few key
details, like an LED light bar at the front, this is more like what the
structure of the production car will look like. In all, the company hopes to
make five of these prototypes. They hope to finish about one a month, with each
improving on the last.
Microlino will also start
preparing tooling so that it’s ready to produce vehicles as soon as possible.
In June, the company will look to homologate its car in Europe, a process it
expects to take two to three months. And as soon as Microlino gets its
homologation papers, it aims to start production. If you’re following along at
home, that should all mean that production will finally begin in September
2021.
Set to start at around € 12,000 (US$ 14,500) the little electric runabout will get up to about 200 km of range. Its price point makes it more expensive than a Renault Twizy
(€ 7,350) but less expensive than a Smart EQ (€ 22,000).
