Microlino - the New EV city Bubble Car that gets more attention than a Ferrari

back in the 1950s there was a huge oil crisis and fuel became prohibitively expensive if you could afford to drive a car you probably downsized it and thus the bubble car generation was born probably the poster child of which was the I Setter the car which single-handedly saved the skin of BMW fast forward to today and the bubble car is actually back but not by BMW let's face it fuel's not getting any cheaper there's still wars being fought over it cities are more congested than ever and car have got too big this is the car that's come back I say come back it's all new and it's made by a company who have made their name and their money in children's scooters and this is it the microlino micro car from the company that brought you the micr scooter about 20 years ago this is a car that I've been waiting to drive in finished form for probably seven or eight years I've wanted to drive this ever since I saw it announced at the Geneva Motor Show today we're finally going to take it out for a drive in and around leafy leafy lovely sunny London I'm Johnny Smith you're watching the late break show and this episode is proudly supported by driver reviews [Music] I like in this moment to when smart launched back at the end of the '90s and it was a left-and drive only car but an amazing construction tiny footprint but with loads and loads of leg room and cabin space and a half decent boot this thing is similar and you'll see why first of all let's talk Dimensions cuz this thing is Tiny it's 2 and 1/2 M long 1 and 1/2 M wide at the front it tapers towards the back cuz the track at the back is only 930 mil whereas the track at the front's 1250 mil and it's a 1.5 M wheelbase so how does that compare to other stuff that we know well the last smart was 2.69 5 m long and 1663 mil wide so actually it was a bigger car you might remember the twizzy in fact if you don't live in the UK you probably see them more often than we do the Renault twizzy is a car that sort of borrowed the bubble car idea but almost went for the message Smit approach which was two seater in single file and it was a great thing if you didn't live in Britain because because it didn't come with doors as standard and the British climate is mostly not like this so it was great in Monaco and nce less good here now that car in terms of Dimensions 2.34 M long and 1.23 wide and it came with two power outputs and a range of about 120 km in total and it was rear wheel drive this is also rear wheel drive and this has three different battery packs that you can choose from and that's what's quite cool about the microlino gives you the choice of being a City car or maybe a bit of a Town and Country Car the short range is 58 M range and that's a 5.5 KW battery pack tiny the medium range which this one is is 110 mile range which is 10 1/2 kwatt hours battery pack size then there's a 15 KW hour battery pack which is the long range and that will do a theoretical 141 mile range I'll put kilometer differences on screen now this is a 16 .6 brake horsepower motor back there which is 12.4 KW and it's got independent rear suspension for goodness sake it's brilliant I am very very excited about this because it's been such a long time coming I've even kept the little promotional toy that I got at the Geneva Motor Show and I've had it on my desk all of the years since waiting for this moment where I can actually get into the car and try it in its finished form okay manual handbrake released it doesn't creep so if you're on a hill like this just got to hover because it's so small I can just do a bit of a cheeky uy like this yeah tell you what it feels so Airy and spacious inside the microlino and it's unusual pleasantly unusual to be driving on Modern car where the dash is right up against the wind screen CU obviously a pillars these days are red right back and you're a long way from touching the windscreen but not SE in this which makes you think probably oh that makes it dangerous well not so because there's a crash bar where this loop is and where my phone holder is that's a crash bar that goes across there which is built this touchcreen is built into it going over speed ramps is a bit weird because you forget how narrow track the back end is compared to the front as I've been driving this I've realized that it doesn't feel unstable at all the suspension is quite stiff a little bit crashy ideally I would want it to be probably slightly softer as a city car the steerings and the brakes are both unassisted and they feel great there's feel for a start but you know it's quite py actually and I I haven't even put it into sport mode yet sport mode so Digital dash layout which you can I believe uh press settings and yeah it will change the digital layout if you want to show the regen it does have regen it's mild um and in sport mode it's a little more aggressive but it's not one pedal driving I don't feel too vulnerable I have had the pleasure and the pain you could say of driving original 1950s bubble cars uh on Modern roads I actually had a bubble car I had a um at a hle bubble car which is another forward opening door model um German and they did make them under license in Britain I sold mine to Michael Barrymore that's another story and it was fun until you joined traffic and then cars like that VW up and that Hyundai I 10 look like monster trucks I like the steering wheel it's smaller than I'd expect from a a little car I guess I was used to a retro car which has a thinner wider bigger wheel and because the rest of the Interior is dark color sort of a mashup of um this sort of fiber board and Alcantara type stuff which is there there's a little lip here so you can put your phone or I don't know parking tickets or coins on there but I do wonder whether it' be quite cool to have a a lighter interior Choice with with a a lighter steering wheel bit like a Nissan figuro and there's a couple of colors I've noticed on the microlino catalog that apparently have been discontinued Amsterdam orange and Paris mint by color which are both chef's kiss of course being an EV when I'm parked up like this I'm not really using any energy and in the case of this car um Bluetooth hands free you can use the the little Bluetooth speaker for both phone and music and the fit and finish of it feels really lovely I have to say feels really nice and I presume the reason why there's no rear view mirror is because of clouting it every time you get in and out I keep looking up here and all I'm seeing is a courtesy light so it takes a bit of getting used to with the mirrors and to adjust the mirrors well you just poke them you poke them like this to adjust them I don't think there's much soundproofing back there so you can hear it whine I'm used to it cuz I've driven fair amount of EVS uh but it's it sounds like a London Underground tube trade to me today we're on the circle line uh please mind the gap mind the gap so tons and tons of leg room I mean if I put the seat all the way back I can't I can't actually drive it it's too far away how cool is that so if you think you're too tall for this car I'm pretty sure you're not but in Corners I mean it feels fine honestly it doesn't skip around it feels very stable indeed actually I'm I'm very impressed with that it drives in a more mature manner than one was expecting now if you're one of these people that's watching this in the UK going oh it's a shame it's leftand Drive bear in mind that's the edge of the car that's me adjusting my mirror and if you really want to just go Gordon Murray spec and just drive it in the middle I mean my bum yeah there we go I'm just going to drive it in the middle because you can this is driving it in the middle I'm pretty sure this isn't illegal it's just a seat positioning choice so yeah McLaren F1 and of course you're probably looking at this little tab on the dash which is the Swiss flag you might have noticed the number plate in this microlino well micro who are the people that make the scooter they're a Swiss company but this car is actually made in Italy in tyin by a company called CM who make components for other cars a lot of Italian cars I believe so it's italian-made Swiss owned managed we cannot possibly review a car like the Molino without discussing the Citron Ami still one of the most popular videos I've ever done on this channel the difference between this and the Amy will become clear I would think but the Citron Amy is it's more of a plastic tub of a car built to a strict budget it's probably not a kind of not a collector's piece but a more premium product which is what the microlino approach is to this but I think there's more substance to it than just having a smiley happy face I mean it's a Ono car there's not many Ono cars around just like the smart was in its original form far more roomy cabin than people ever gave it credit for look at this soft closed door function it's great isn't it there's not enough Smiley happy Jolly looking cars in the world at the moment especially ones which have a genuine purpose and remember the whole point of the microlino is it's fit for City use this is not the kind of car you're going to Doss about on the motorway in I mean it doesn't even do 60 MPH it does 56 so there's no not to 62 times but these features are some very neat little features LED headlights on these lovely little snail like stalks but on the back of the same pod are your wing mirrors it's really neat little function here that button there the solenoid release for the door the door fully opens on one press then there's this lovely Smiley little light bar which I think is the daytime running lights which you won't see on a beautiful day like this one wiper because you don't need more than one wiper at all and the construction of this is actually different from the original concept that I saw back in 2016 at the Geneva motor show this is no longer a tubular frame like the original smart this is actually a steel monoco with aluminum panels riveted onto it that's aluminium that's aluminium I believe there's plastic bumpers so it weighs about half a ton depending on which battery you go for wheels and tires on the original Bubble cars they had tiny tiny wheels and tires 8 in and 10 in diameter I think but this has got actual wheels and tires I think they're 13s okay yeah so this has 145 7013 Continental Tires now when it comes to buying new tires for your car it can be a bit of a Minefield and that's where driver reviews.com comes in because driver reviews.com is Europe's largest verified online platform where real customers give real feedback on their Tire choices and their purchases so go there before you decide which black circular things you're going to put on your car whether your car is an SUV a city car an electric car or a sports car driver reviews can help reduce the stress of finding new tires for your car partnering with many of the largest tire retailers in the world driver reviews brings you thousands of verified and unbiased tire reviews covering all of the leading Brands so when you're searching for for new tires look out for the driver reviews logo to give you peace of mind that the reviews come from real customers just like you to discover your local driver reviews partner website and to find out the winning tires of this year's customer Choice Awards visit driver reviews.com love the back end of this look how tapered it is when you see it from dead on it's almost got a Citroen DS style kind of loeng shape to it it's beautiful like I said before earlier on it's independent rear suspension on this thing Motors at the back here independent rear which is glorious and this rear this lovely frosted rear Bar Light Phil the videographer said that looks like a 911 it's true I think it looks like a 993 911 or possibly a TI can electric Tian but what you want to know about is boot space see there are a lot of cars small City cars which have a terrible amount of boot space not the microlino that there is a huge boot considering this car is so tiny let me show you it's 230 L right that will fit dogs in yeah I don't actually have dogs but I climbed in myself to give you an artist's impression of what it might look like yeah that 230 L the fat 500 is 185 L that's a full car the mini one 210 L that's a full car the Honda e 171 L I knew it had a terrible boot Honda e so that gives you an idea of how usable that boot is on the microlino glorious love it I'm going to put it in sport mode now then that dial goes red and then it's a bit more Punchy so remember Vmax in this is 56 which I'm about to oh no I'm not that's kilm an hour this feels like 56 feels a lot quicker than I was expecting but again it feels stable I it's just delightful going back to pricing pricing in the UK is not confirmed but they think we think it'll start at about £17,000 for the basic model which will be elgible for people to drive on a CBT those are the ones like the Citron Ami in France you can drive it when you're 14 because the top speed's restricted to 28 mil hour then the mid-spec like this car or the mid battery and top spec will probably be about £20,000 now bear in mind the Ami in this country is 8 A2 Grand it is a lot more money than Miami microlino say it's a different kind of Market it's much more stylel and it's much less kind of value Le and you will have exclusivity as as as because because of that but um it does beg the question you know you could buy a 2-year-old Honda e for that kind of money or a few secondhand twizzies but I feel like in winter this you could really Drive got heated screens front and rear on the touch screen you got heating no air conditioning which I'm fine with cuz my air conditioning is sliding glass which I can easily reach on the passenger side obviously and a full sun rof oh sport mode yeah see remember this is a city Centric car so the response in sport mode is plenty Punchy enough for City Life dodging potholes and people on modified illegal ebikes sorry viewers I'm going to have to put my glasses on for a bit because it's so damn bright and I don't have any sunvisors I've got the sun right on my Dome today and actually we are within Stone throw of a car cave that I did a couple of years ago that was a guy who was completely obsessed with bubble cars called Gary and um if you haven't watched that episode I would love you to watch it he's got an original is seta Messa Schmid all sorts we have to put the joy back into motoring it's getting a bit boring having cars looking so aggressive and trying to look Sinister I am more than happy and comfortable in my own skin driving a car like this that makes people smile it does the job well it's easy to park it's cheap to run looking in the reflection in the shops it's quite amusing seeing this and that light bar on the front door there has the indicators integrated which is quite cool that's as far away from this car as I think you can get that is a Dodge Challenger demon which is a cool looking car it's a really well cuz it's a retro I would not want to drive that in London though it's on Cut slicks too [Music] [Music] I've just pulled over um in front of a well an average SUV that you sort of see in London I think that might be an Audi Q7 and it's amazing the amount of people that come around they want to take pictures of the car they one have nosy inside and it fits so nicely down the road the road feels massive for it but it doesn't feel like I'm being squashed off the road doesn't have the vulnerability of a lot of old bubble cars which I've driven so genuinely is a real new car you know a ground up electric car that's got some some substance to it but if you don't like being seen and looked at it's not that kind of car really can you see cuz people are already photographing as I get in yeah I've always been worried that I would drive a microlino and then want one and I feel like I'm getting to that point although I have a lot of two- seat cars in my life just not great when you're a father of two it's really py yeah you know what the basics of this car feel right road holding brakes steering cabin space the feeling of um robust build quality safety they've got this stuff right they've had a long time to get it right but I'm glad they've got it right but if you're looking to fast charge that's not a thing with a microlino you know what in the same way that we're seeing a lots of wealthy car collectors who can afford to Splash out on supercars and Exotica they always put a f 500 in their collection as if it's a sort of micro car Ferrari and I think this is the kind of market for those people people this is a great second car in an urban environment especially for empty nesters or people that don't have children but also most people commute on their own or two of them in a car so that's worth thinking about and also it would be a great car to color code next to a a more interesting kind of classic or a everyday car if you're not interested in stying you are just simply not going to see the value in a car like the microlino being the best part of 20 grand so that's what a f 500 looks like that's the latter smart 42 which is kind of one of the closest comparisons to this I'm going to Snick it into this space which will be really easy cuz it's tiny give you an idea of what the size difference is between this and the microlino so yeah it's tiny I mean I you could get another one in there in fact if we parked it the other way perpendicular you could get three or four in which is what the smart was always good for it's really really enjoyable to drive actually thoroughly enjoying myself and the thing is is when that car came out people were prejudiced against it because they thought it wasn't serious they thought it wasn't safe just cuz it was small they thought the boot was small not true Big Cabin good boot for the size of the car and extremely safe I'd like to say the same about this it's construction it's boot the size of the cabin is brilliant I can't remember the last time I drove around in city traffic with a big beaming smile on my face but that's the effect that the microlino has it makes you smile you drive around people like looking at it it brings a bit of Joy but not only that it's a genuinely useful car as long as you use it in a town in a city and you want to travel as two people or single people and with a big boot it's glorious it's not a a caricature with no substance it actually has a lot of substance and I'm so glad I'm so so glad after waiting all this time for it to come to fruition yes it's expensive but you could look at that as you're buying exclusivity and that's what people do these days I'd much rather drive this around a city than so so many other vehicles this feels proper and I'm thanking M Kino for that cuz it's good would I buy one yes I actually I think I probably would buy one anyway what do you think cuz you're the people who are thinking of buying one after all you're the public if you haven't already I'd love you to subscribe to the late break show and if you want to become an early adopter of these videos and see them 24 hours or so before everybody else you can become a patreon have a look at the link in the description thank you

Channel: The Late Brake Show

Views: 120,250

Keywords: jonny smith car reviews, carpervert, the late brake show, jonny smith ev reviews, microlino, best city car, micro scooter for adults, bubble car, new electric cars 2024, bmw isetta, citroen ami, electric car, ev, micro car, smallest new car, shortest car in the world, renault twizy, cutest new car, best small ev, forza horizon peel p50

Id: qeNR8YJCekQ

Length: 24min 30sec (1470 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024