Minicars and microcars aren’t a thing in the U.S. Despite their popularity in Europe and Asia, tiny cars have never been able to get a foothold stateside. Now, with the advent of electric vehicles, they’re getting even more popular overseas, but our attitudes toward them over here aren’t changing.
Stuff like the Citroën Ami and Fiat Topolino may be hits elsewhere around the globe, but they’re barely talked about here. Bloomberg’s David Zipper took a deep dive into why U.S. consumers are generally disinterested in microcars, why our legislators and regulators are hesitant to give them the thumbs up and where the future of microcars in the U.S. is heading.
Before we get too far into it, let’s define a “minicar.” Zipper’s use of “minicar” refers to “a wide range of conveyances that are bigger and faster than a bicycle but smaller and slower (and almost always less expensive) than a full-sized automobile. I agree with his assessment. He also adds that some can fit up to two passengers, while others can squeeze in a few more.
Here’s more from Bloomberg on why minicars haven’t caught on in the U.S. despite public interest:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a division of the Department of Transportation, requires new cars sold in the US to adhere to the exhaustive Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which cover everything from windshields to seat belts. Unlike Europe, NHTSA has established only one category for smaller four-wheeled cars that can’t meet those safety standards: Low-Speed Vehicles (LSV), which are capped at just 25 mph. At the state level, departments of motor vehicles generally require vehicles to be classified as either an automobile or LSV to receive the registration that permits them to be legally operated on public roads. (In 2016 the federal government did create an exception for “autocycles,” three-wheeled machines that are generally treated as motorcycles.)
The rigidity of NHTSA categorizations for four-wheeled vehicles — car, LSV, or nothing — leaves little space for many minicars that are popular abroad. Outside the US, most minicars can exceed the 25-mph LSV maximum, and they typically lack the airbags and other costly safety equipment required to meet federal crash standards. (A rare exception, the Smart ForTwo, left the US market in 2019.) In 2008, NHTSA rejected a petition to create a new category of “medium speed vehicles” traveling at up to 35 mph, which would have accommodated many of the quadricycles popular in Europe.
Technically, minicar builders could sell their cars in the U.S. if they capped their speed at 25 mph, but that would sort of suck, wouldn’t it? At the very least, it would severely hamper the usefulness or practicality of these vehicles. It would also make them less safe. Imagine taking a car that tops out at 25 on one of America’s many stroads. It would be a nightmare.
Of course, minicar fans can get around these rules by just importing a vehicle that is over 25 years old, but damn those things are deathtraps.
On the flip side of the coin, here’s why people in Europe and Asia absolutely love these things. From Bloomberg:
The primary reason is not a lack of consumer interest, but regulatory roadblocks erected by inflexible public officials who are preventing Americans from enjoying some of the world’s most creative, exciting and practical innovations in urban mobility.
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Just about all entrants in the newest generation of minicars are battery-powered, as electrification has sparked a surge of new interest in small zero-emissions machines that can thrive in congested urban areas. Since most minicar trips are relatively short, models may require only modest-sized batteries with around 50 miles of range.
Motorists in Japan are often cited as minicar mavens. For 75 years, the country has been the home of kei cars and trucks — small urban vehicles with their own regulatory classification, established size limits and safety rules. Now comprising about a third of Japanese new car sales, kei vehicles offer a less expensive and more maneuverable alternative to full-sized cars and pickups. Minicars have also found eager buyers in Asian nations such as China, where the Wuling Mini EV, costing well under $10,000, was for a time the country’s most popular electric vehicle.
With its narrow streets and low urban speed limits, Europe, too, has been an inviting market for nimble minicars, particularly as cities like Paris and Amsterdam convert thousands of on-street parking spots to bike lanes and public spaces. “It’s become more and more difficult to enter cities with full-blown cars, due to a lack of parking,” said Annick Roetynck, the head of LEVA-EU, a European trade association that represents manufacturers of light electric vehicles. “In Europe, it is the cities that are pushing the mobility policies. They are getting fed up with too many cars, and the cars are too big — they constitute a greater danger for children.”
Roetynck added that minicars can also be well-suited “for people who live in villages and need to travel some distances in the countryside,” using winding roads where traffic seldom exceeds 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour).
The European Union has established two regulatory categories for “quadricyles” that are capped at 45 kph (28 mph) and 90 kph (56 mph), respectively. Such machines are subject to rules and safety requirements that are less stringent than those for full-sized cars. Driver’s licenses, for instance, are typically not necessary to operate the slower class of quadricycles, opening their use up to operators as young as 14.