I sold 50million scooters and changed urban travel – now I’m doing a car

A MAN who invented a scooter and then sold 50 million of them worldwide has now designed a car.

Swiss inventor Wim Ouboter launched Micro scooters exactly 25 years ago and transformed the way people get around.

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Now he hopes to trigger a car down-sizing revolution with a super-lightweight electric model for two called the Microlino.

‘Scooters got people moving and saved billions of unnecessary car journeys,’ says Ouboter, 62.

‘I believe that a similar change in mind-set is now vital for urban car travel in order to radically reduce C02.

‘The day should come when it is unacceptable for just one or two people to sit in a SUV for a local journey.

‘Once they were cool fashion, now they are regarded as disgusting.

‘I want a similar stigma to apply to driving short distances in big cars.’

Since 1997, Ouboter’s family-owned Micro Mobility Systems business has sold more than 50 million scooters in 30 varying models and generated over £600m.

He has ploughed a big chunk of his scooter fortune into the Microlino car project, which he started seven years ago.

Ouboter – who has been nicknamed “the Swiss Elon Musk” – created the car with his two sons – Oliver, 28, and Merlin, 27.

The launch model is called the Pioneer and recently started coming off their own assembly line in Turin.

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The first car to be delivered in Italy went to Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri.

There are already 36,000 people registered to buy a Microlino and it will be available in the UK next spring.

The key to the car’s appeal is its size and that it is fun. Ouboter says that people smile when they see it on the streets.

‘You don’t get that reaction when you are driving a Ferrari. We want the Microlino to bring some fun back into urban driving,’ he says.

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So, what is the Microlino like up close? Well, it’s certainly small.

At just 8ft 3in long, 4ft 10in wide and 4ft 11in high, three cars can cross-park – that’s facing the pavement – in a single parking bay.

Inside, there’s a comfy bench seat for two and a boot big enough for “three cases of beer”, as its makers put it.

The Microlino is also super nippy. It hits 30mph in five seconds and has a top speed of 55mph.

The maximum range is 142 miles and it fully recharges in four hours from a conventional home plug socket.

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Due to the lack of protective bonnet, the passenger cabin has a sturdy steel frame and a reinforced steel front door that has scored better than other mini cars in head-on collision safety tests.

The entry price is £13,600, rising to £19,800.

Ouboter says: ’We want it to be the first second car. People will always have big cars for long journeys, but they can have a Microlino for the city.

‘The key factor is that people downsize.’

Research has shown that most short journeys are taken by an average of 1.2 people in a car that is 95% too big and too over-powered for that trip, so the Microlino strips out everything deemed unnecessary.

Consequently, it uses 60% fewer parts than a conventional car and, weighing only 496kg, it is 55% lighter than standard models.

It is so light that it generates one third of the CO2 per mile compared to other small electric cars.

It also only produces 10% of the toxic dust from its brakes and tyres compared to a four-wheel drive.

The Microlino was inspired by the dinky Isetta, which was originally designed in Italy and released in 1953.

The Ouboters have also created a cool windowless model called Spiaggina which is ideal for hot locations.

They hope it will become a holiday rental like the classic Mini Moke and taken up by luxury hotel chains to loan to their guests.

In the future, they also plan to partner with major city authorities such as Transport for London to bring entire fleets of Microlinos to be hired, just like electric scooters and bicycles.

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