One-Seat Car for Europe in 2015

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One-Seat Car for Europe in 2015

“New reservations are coming in on a daily basis.” That's the word from Colibri, the Jena, Germany makers of a tiny city-oriented electric one-seater runabout that was originally due next year, but has now been delayed to late 2015 as the company continues to search for investors to get it over the finish line. The car is targeted to sell for just $12,000 (plus a $74 monthly rental for the six kilowatt-hour lithium battery pack). The Colibri has benefited from EV subsidies totaling $3.7 million from the German government over two years. The company claims to have met the goals set out in the two-year 2011-2012 program. But that level of support won’t go far in launching a new car company. Fisker, for instance, spent $192 million of U.S. government money on its way to failure. Obviously, the ground is now littered with failed EV startups, and pre-orders—even a healthy 700 of them (half private customers, half fleets)—are no guarantee of success. Colibri claims that its 2015 production is already “sold out” in terms of those pre-orders, but getting your name on this car’s list appears to be a matter of checking a box in an online form. Colibri was launched in 2008, and is inching its way to the market. But the Colibri is definitely interesting as a potential urban commuter car, with possible uses in fleets and car-sharing applications. The basics are that it’s a car on a hybrid space frame (claims are that it will pass European NCAP crash tests) with doors that swing up (rather than out) to admit a single occupant. Two will fit into a standard parking space. The entire touch-screen dash panel moves out of the way to let you in, but it still looks a bit awkward. Blurbs say that drivers up to six foot three are accommodated.The Colibri weighs less than 1,000 pounds, and has a range of 68 miles on a charge, with 62 mph coming up in a decent 9.9 seconds. But speed is limited to 74.5 mph. A full charge is said to take two hours from 220 volts—it’s a small battery. There are no plans to sell the Colibri in the U.S., and I think that’s wise. No matter how many large cities there are in America where this car would work fine, the bottom line is that buyers here want their vehicles to be highway capable. The Colibri might be able to keep up with traffic on interstates, but it’s so small that you’d probably be white-knuckled among the diesel semis.