New Mobility: Electric Tricycle Cars - Boom and Bubble

SP-X / Cologne. With the renewed awakening of e-mobility, the actually bizarre and backward-looking tricycle car is experiencing an idiosyncratic renaissance. In the recent past, a number of start-ups have presented very different and sometimes quite bizarre concepts that balance dynamics, efficiency and moderate battery sizes. Actually, the tricycle could become the savior in terms of climate change. It doesn't look like a breakthrough. With retro charm and a high level of driving fun, the chances of success could increase.

If you search for electric tricycles on Google, you will find an almost incredible amount of vehicles. In many cases, these are one-off pieces with a craft booth character or even computer drawings that promise innovative concepts, but which, after full-bodied announcements, usually follow little concrete.

But by no means all electric tricycle concepts are or were pipe crusher. Already in the 1980s, it was chosen as a resource-saving eco-mobile for a new urban mobility. If you disregard the Sinclair C5, which was more a bike than a car, it was the City EL and later the Twike that started as climate savers when the phenomenon of climate change still seemed a long way off.

The pioneer was the CityEL electric light vehicle from the Danish company EL-Trans. The low-energy vehicle, which weighs only around 200 kilograms, was launched in 1987. The idea: Commuters in particular mostly drive short distances alone in their large cars, which consumes a disproportionate amount of energy per person-kilometer. The CityEL, which is just over 60 km / h fast, enables a significantly better energy balance as a commuter vehicle. Despite these advantages, the tricycle with a closed cabin was not particularly successful in its 30-year history. After several changes of ownership, the Krabatt company has been responsible for the construction and sale of the CityEL for several years, but the activities surrounding the project seem to have fallen asleep.

The Twike, which has been in series production since 1995, has experienced a similar vehicle philosophy and an equally eventful history. Similar to today's pedelecs, it combines a battery-electric drive with a pedal drive. The two-seater tricycle will probably continue to be produced in very small quantities by the Hessian company Fine Automobile, which announced a modern and significantly faster Twike 5 years ago. So far nothing concrete has been brought onto the street. As with many similar start-up projects, development and / or the search for investors may take a long time.

Around the same time as the Twike, the electric car Sam from the Swiss company Cree AG was launched. This was a light vehicle with 15 kW / 20 PS strong electric drive, which should be satisfied with 100 kWh of energy for 5 kilometers. For comparison: a Renault Twizy needs about 6 kWh. Although a few dozen prototypes of Sam have been created, the project never really got off the ground. Between 2009 and 2014, the Polish company Impact Automotive Technologies produced a modernized version of the Sam. In the meantime, however, the curiously designed tricycle has become quiet.

The Aptera project of the Californian company Aptera Motors, which started in 2007, also ended in a dead end. Unlike the City-EL or Twike, the particularly wind-slick, low-energy vehicle should offer almost adult driving performance. Less than 100 seconds were proclaimed for the 10 km / h sprint. There was also a top speed of 137 km / h. The range should be 160 kilometers. Initially, a target price of at least $ 25.000 was targeted and a large number of down payments were probably received. However, bankruptcy followed in 2011. Even behind a comeback announced in 2013, there was little more than hot air.

More recently, three-wheel projects were announced and buried again after some time. The traditional English brand Morgan attracted a lot of attention with its three-wheeler EV3. Series production was announced for 2016 in 2018, but then the project was officially put on hold at the end of 2018. Reason: Problems with Frazier-Nash, the development partner responsible for the drive. It remains to be seen whether Morgan will make a second attempt for this promising project. But it will certainly take some time for a new start. With the end of EV3, it was announced that the down payments for the approximately 100 pre-orders would be repaid.

The EV3 from Morgan attracted particular attention with its retro charm. Two younger tricycle projects with very different accentuations also want to take advantage of this effect. On the one hand there is the announced revival of the BMW Isetta in the form of the Microlino. It is an electric light vehicle for urban traffic, but less the small CO2 footprint than the great look as an incentive to buy. However, the promising project has recently stalled. The companies involved in Microlino, Artega and Micro Mobility Systems AG, are going their separate ways and, according to the current status, will only be launching largely similar vehicles on the market next year, with the Artega version being called Karolino.

The Nobe 100, conceived and developed in Estonia, exudes even more retro fascination than the modern Isetta. It is a particularly elegant appearance that was garnished with various design quotes from the 50s and 60s. The drive is also impressive, because small hub motors with 15 kW / 20 HP power are used on all three wheels. The mini-mobile should sprint from standstill to 5,9 km / h in 100 seconds and reach a maximum of 130 km / h. A range of 210 and 260 kilometers is promised for the battery, which can be recharged in two hours. The project seems to be taking shape. In Estonia, the small Stromer has already received approval for road traffic. The company plans to start production in 2020. In addition to a hardtop, a convertible version and two performance levels are planned. The prices should start at 37.000 euros.

It remains to be seen whether this will work in 2020 in the case of the Nobe. In the scene of electric tricycle manufacturers, there are still a number of current examples of announcements for series production that have been postponed ever further. This applies, among other things, to the rather ambitious solo tricycle project by the Canadian company Electra Meccanica. The start was actually planned for 2017. So far, a few dozen prototypes have been built from the economical single-seater with modern optics. According to the latest information, the Solo is to be mass-produced in China from 2020. Up to 75.000 vehicles are to be built in the next three years, which are to be found primarily in North America.

Other electric tricycle projects have been announced by the US companies Sondors, Ampere Motors and Vanderhall, among others. In all three cases, these are strong and fast vehicles that, unlike CityEL or Twike, promise puristic driving fun. For example, the Sondors tricycle, announced for just $ 10.000, should do the 100 km / h sprint in just 6 seconds. But even strong driving performance and low prices will probably not help the electric tricycle to make a big breakthrough. But the chances are not bad that some of them will establish themselves more strongly than before as a cool alternative to the Teslas, IDs and E-Trons.