They measure less than three meters long, cannot reach high speeds, and carry a maximum of two people. While it may seem surprising, microcars&#;a kind of mix between a motorcycle and a sedan&#;have been with us since the post-war period. The difference is that, now, most of them no longer emit CO2 thanks to their electric motors.
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Who would have thought 75 years ago that what began as a kind of shortcut for manufacturing vehicles at reduced prices in times of extreme poverty, would end up becoming part of the formula to solve traffic problems in big cities: congestion, pollution, noise, accidents, etc. For the past couple of years, cities like Madrid and Barcelona have already taken major steps in the fight against these problems, implementing low emission zones, expanding pedestrian areas or bike lanes, and pushing the city towards new models of sustainable mobility with the arrival of carpooling and carsharing, among other solutions.
Consequently, the role of microcars is growing in carsharing companies such as ShareNow. It is increasingly common to pass by a microcar when strolling the streets of Madrid or Barcelona; the surprising thing is that with just a cell and a simple application, you can grab it, drive to your destination, and park it on any corner of either capital, paying a fixed amount per kilometer traveled. This trend represents an open door to a future where cities will be stocked with these vehicles, taking advantage of their reduced size to streamline transportation.
When we hear mention of two-seater cars, we often think of light quadricycles, which reach a maximum speed of 45 km/h and only require a category AM driving license. Technically they are not cars, unlike other vehicles found on the market that have the same appearance yet reach higher speeds. As such, they would not fit into this category.
There is hardly any concrete sales data for the latter, but there is for quadricycles. During , 946 units were registered, 420% more than the previous year, when there were 182. And this year the momentum shows no signs of slowing down; the first three months of the year already saw 274 registrations, 182% more than in the same period of the previous year (at the close of March , 97 quadricycles had been registered), according to data from the National Association of Two-Wheeler Industry Companies (Anesdor - Asociación Nacional de Empresas del Sector de Dos Ruedas). "We find ourselves immersed in a process of mobility transformation, and, against this backdrop, smaller vehicles and electric vehicles are growing in popularity. Microcars are finding their niche, and we are likely to see more and more brands entering this segment," says José María Riaño, Secretary General of the Association.
Goodbye to parking problems
What exactly are the practical advantages of electric microcars? Importantly, because these vehicles are so small, operators can use them for short journeys with ease. They do not require large parking spaces, which is greatly appreciated in large cities.
What is more, maintenance costs are lower. Since these electric cars do not have a traditional gearbox engine, breakdowns are fewer and farther between; there are few elements that can wear out. Maintenance work won&#;t involve replacing filters, for example, but rather a periodic check-up on the battery and electric engine. Tax advantages are also on the table. In fact, tax payments are lower.
Sustainability is another selling point. Electric microcars boast no fuel consumption and zero emissions. Operators can charge one for an approximate cost of three euros every 100 kilometers. And the good news is that city-wide charging networks continue to grow. Earlier this year, Endesa X and Cepsa announced an agreement to deploy the largest ultrafast charging network in Spain and Portugal, and the energy company offers a map that operators can use to find all the company's service stations with charging points available in Spain. In this sense, Tania Puche, Communications Director of the Spanish National Association of Vehicle Dealers (Ganvam - Asociación Nacional de Vendedores de Vehículos), believes that sales will continue to grow, because in addition to meeting all anti-pollution protocols, they are a &#;more stable solution than a moped, with a structure that protects the operator from direct blows. They also have a relatively affordable purchase price, which is made even more attractive thanks to &#;Moves&#; subsidies."
Models on the market
Major brands such as Toyota and Citroën have already opted for these smaller vehicles with electric engines to simultaneously contribute to solving the impact of pollution and congestion in cities. Here are some of the models available on the market:
Electric, tiny, and designed for city driving only. This teensy car is manufactured by the Swiss company Micro Mobility Systems. It can reach up to 90 km/h. It has a range of 200 kilometers and can be fully charged in about four hours. It measures only 2.4 meters and has two seats inside. It also has a small trunk that can hold the equivalent of a couple of cases of drinks.
Two seats and only 2.5 meters in length. Manufactured by the Japanese brand, this car is also fully electric and reaches up to 60 km/h. It can travel a maximum of 150 kilometers on a single charge. When charged using a household plug, the battery is ready in about ten hours.
This is Citroën's first 100% electric microcar. Its features are similar to the previous models, but with one important difference: it is a quadricycle that reaches, at most, 45 km/h. Since it is not technically a car, it cannot drive on highways or freeways, however operators at least 15 years of age can drive it with a category AM driver's license. In this case, the vehicle has a range of up to 70 kilometers.
The survey included perception on advantages and disadvantages of the application of more SEVs within urban traffic. The most important aspect mentioned in the interviews is the reduction of land usage especially in regards to stationary traffic. Another major advantage mentioned in the interviews and in the online survey is seen in the vehicles&#; light weight and the corresponding low energy consumption. An important prospect in particular for municipalities is the improvement of air quality. Air pollution in cities is a concern worsened by population growth and motorization rate. Figure 1 shows the quantitative online evaluation and draws decisive advantages to the reduction of land use and air quality. One benefit that stands out while occurring sporadically in the interviews is noise reduction. An important component in the decision of transport options for consumers is costs. Compared to EVs these vehicles are less expensive and have lower operation costs. The costs are, however, a controversial topic depending on the comparison of SEV purchase prices with different types of vehicles.
In regards to possible concerns in the interviews and the online survey, safety was mentioned as the most sensitive issue. Another stated worry in both methods (Fig. 2) was the possible switch from public transport (PT) and active modes to SEVs. Even though, this is a mentioned concern in the existing literature, there is no evidence on the potential of people switching from PT or active modes to SEVs. According to the interviewed experts, the aim of transport planning has to be on reducing the overall number of vehicles and not simply increasing it by introducing more SEVs. SEVs, however, can play a part in new mobility forms such as sharing systems. For the use, a lack of adapted infrastructure needs to be taken under consideration as currently there are no benefits for SEVs.
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When talking about a sustainable mobility offer, the three pillars of social, ecological, and economic sustainability should always be considered. Although not all of them are explicitly mentioned in this paper, they often implicitly find their effect. For example, saving space for private parking would mean that the cost of parking, which is often passed on to residents, regardless of whether they own a car or not, could decrease.
The switch from ICE vehicles to electrically propelled vehicles itself holds many benefits especially in urban areas. SEVs and BEV have a positive effect on global climate and air quality. Charging of batteries using electricity generated on renewable energies increases the positive effects and does not simply shift the CO2 tax geographically from the city to energy production plants based on fossil fuels [13]. However, low energy consumption is still important to mitigate negative impact from renewable energy generation and due to limited available energy amount.
Contradicting climate change mitigation efforts, a trend toward larger and heavier cars can be seen since the introduction of the first serial production EVs, as the technology is advancing in terms of, e.g., higher ranges. As a negative effect, this in turn requires larger and heavier batteries using more critical raw materials for the production of the batteries and making the cars inefficient in operation. Comparing an M1 electric car, the BMW i3, with an L7e category vehicle, the Renault Twizy, the BMW i3 has a significantly higher power consumption with 13.1 kWh/100 km (measured according to VO (EU) 715/ [14]) than the Twizy with 8.4 kWh/100 km [15] (ADAC-Autotest). Though the consumption statements are not directly comparable due to different test cycles and should therefore not be used to quantify relative energy savings, they show the energy inefficiency of heavy vehicles bearing in mind average occupancy rates of below two persons per vehicle [16]. The inefficiency can further be illustrated by comparing the range per kWh. In this way, an SEV with one kWh can go considerably further than an electric car. Figure 3 shows the relation between the Twizy with maximum speed of 45 and 80 km/h, a Smart for two and a Mercedes-Benz B-Class EV. Adding to this, the relation between transport task and vehicle weight is highly inefficient for passenger cars based on average occupation rate. The transport task passenger transport in Germany in average means a carrying capacity of 115 kg, calculated from the average occupation rate 1.5 [16] and the average weight of an adult person 77 kg [17]. While the weight of the Twizy exceeds this transport weight 4.3 times, the B-Class exceeds the average transport task by almost 14 times.
Increasing population in cities intensifies the situation of scarce space and raises the question of equitable contribution of land. The current land used for transport infrastructure accounts for a large part of the total area. For example, in German large cities, transport infrastructure takes up 12% in average of the total area and even a quarter of land used for transport infrastructure compared to human settlement areas [18]. Considering the average rate of occupation, private cars are the most intense mode of mobility occupying valuable space in cities [13].
Smaller sized vehicles take up less space on the road and require smaller parking spaces. An average parking space size of 5 m in length and approximately 2.5 m in width could be used by, e.g., three Renault Twizys or Toyota i-Roads.
Comparing space needed by SEVs, smaller M1 models, and large M1 cars, differences become apparent in parking position and in case of operation with speeds of 30 km/h (see Fig. 4). Taking into account stopping and reaction distance, the Renault Twizy needs about 20 m2 less space than the Mercedes B-Class car in situations with 30 km/h speed. Differences in space requirement for driving are therefore minor compared to parking space potentials. Furthermore, the Mercedes B-Class enables the transport of up to five persons, resulting in a low space per person, However, with regard to average occupancy rates of 1.5 [16], this is a rather theoretical potential, used in a low percentage of trips. Even more, the figure shows the high potential for savings in land use for SEVs in parked position.
Although efforts are being made in some cities to introduce stricter regulations, e.g., in connection with the construction of new buildings, the cost of parking is mostly carried by residents. Less and smaller parking lots could decrease the overall costs for residents as well as for municipalities. Furthermore, under current circumstances SEVs spend less energy idling as they account for shorter parking search traffic than cars, because they fit in many different sized and shaped parking lots and usually can park crossways [7].
With regard to the actual potential for rededicating land used by cars, it is important to identify which user groups can switch to SEVs according to their travel behavior and how high the potential is. In the chapter &#;Fields of applications and transport-related potentials of small electric vehicles in Germany,&#; a technical feasible substitution potential is calculated using data from a national household survey (MiD).
Although the reduced size and weight bring many benefits for the user, municipalities, and the environment, they have a higher safety risk to occupants, especially in the event of a collision with larger vehicles. This is reflected by the results of the quantitative survey, where concern about more unsafe vehicles on the road is the second leading obstacle for SEVs in the opinion of the participants. In this case, occupants of the vehicle with the lowest mass sustain the highest damage [7]. Besides disadvantages for lightweight vehicles due to physical laws that determine accident dynamics of collisions with unequal opponents, safety features of both lightweight and heavy vehicles influence the extent of lesions in case of a collision.
On the one hand, SEVs are not equipped with extensive safety equipment due to the necessity of lightweight design and cost. In many countries and also according to EU regulations, crash tests for SEVs are not required by law. Therefore, the vehicles are equipped with minimal safety features [19]. Besides the lack of mandatory crash tests, there are safety requirements that are laid down in EU Regulation No. 168/ and the delegated EU Regulation No. 3/.
On the other hand, safety structures of heavy cars are not optimized for collisions with very lightweight vehicles and usually relatively rigid. Deformation of structures that would reduce impact forces by transforming kinetic energy into deformation energy is therefore limited. This cannot be compensated by structures of SEVs and thus leads to high deceleration of occupants in the lightweight vehicle, causing more severe injuries. High speeds of passenger cars add to the risks in case of an accident.
Extended safety features like airbags as standard equipment, improvement of vehicle structures and active safety features like emergency brake assistants could enhance safety of SEVs. Even more than technological measures, regulation could improve the situation for SEV occupants. When both SEVs and fast, heavy cars are mixed in high speed traffic, the safety risk is higher. The reduction of the maximum speed allowed, e.g., in inner-urban areas or city highways, would improve the situation. This would not only protect SEV occupants, but also vulnerable road users like mopeds, bicycles, or pedestrians. Scientific investigations show a direct link between reduction in average speed and decrease in accident numbers and crash severity, e.g., [20,21,22,23]. The extent of safety increase varies depending on initial speed and further parameters like infrastructure characteristics. For urban roads, speeding is one key factor in traffic accidents with impacts on both frequency of crashes and severity of injuries [24].
Safety issues of transport modes like bicycles and mopeds are more severe compared to SEVs; however, in contrast to SEVs, they are sold and used in large volumes. It is common consent that safety could be increased by optimized traffic regulation and infrastructural measures rather than with enhanced safety structures of these kinds of vehicles. This is similar for SEVs, even though the safety potential of vehicle technology is considerably higher and should therefore be further developed additional to regulative and infrastructural measures.
The aspect of costs, in particular with regard to the purchase price, was discussed diversely in the qualitative analysis. In a comparison of costs, it is always very important to distinguish between the different types of vehicles. For example, the cost of owning or buying an SEV to offer in a sharing business is very high compared to e-scooters, bicycles, and some second-hand cars. Particularly in comparison with lower-priced cars, the purchase price can have a negative effect on the purchase decision, as SEVs often appear expensive with regard to limited flexibility in the transport of people and goods. However, compared to new cars, especially BEVs, they are relatively less expensive (Fig. 5).
For manufactures, the production costs for small series vehicles are significantly more expensive than mass production. However, in order to offer a vehicle to a broader user group, an attractive price is necessary. Manufacturers are therefore often faced with a dilemma. For example, by setting higher safety standards, they could offer a safer and high-quality product, but would have to set the selling price very high. For large companies developing a model for a small series vehicle in their portfolio often does not make sense as the economic risk is too high to invest in.
In the qualitative analysis, it became clear that the current situation is not favorable for SEVs in many countries, i.e., high speed limits in cities, no advantages in regards to parking or use of lanes, few incentives, few models on the market. In comparison with cars for many people, this leaves SEVs with few rewards to people considering them as relatively expensive.
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