A new electric car from Sweden comes in a flatpack box and assembly is required. But it wasn’t manufactured by who you think. While this car looks like it came from IKEA, it’s not actually a DIY project.
Stockholm based Luvly, founded in 2015, designed the microcar to be small and super light so that it could reduce the emissions that regular shipping entails, reported CNN. Shipping a flatpack, ready to assemble car is far more sustainable.
Introducing the Luvly O
There are a myriad of tiny cars, according to Fast Company, and electric tiny cars that are too small to be considered passenger vehicles are becoming very popular in Europe due to convenience, affordability, and a smaller carbon footprint.
To fill this niche, Luvly will launch its first model, the Luvly O, later in 2023. The car will roll out in Stockholm, Paris, and Madrid. But don’t call the Luvly O a car, the company’s CEO Håkan Lutz told Fast Company, it’s an LUV which stands for a light urban vehicle.
The snappy two-seater has a top speed of 55 mph (90 kph) with a 62-mile (100 km) range, reported The Sun. It comes with two portable batteries that do not use car chargers. In fact, you can recharge from your workplace or home. According to Lutz, this is enough for the majority of commutes and running trips in urban settings.
The cars are not a DIY project In order to be road safe, the flatpacks will be delivered to licensed car plants to assemble.
Are microcars safe?
While tiny cars are not new, they have actually been around since the 1950s, reported CNN. These small lightweight vehicles have developed a reputation of being unsafe. That’s due to the light frames and limited crumple zones.
Microcars also are not required to be crash tested because they are not subject to the same safety rules but Lutz insists that the Luvly O is safe. “For light vehicles to compete with cars, and hopefully out-compete cars, they must be safe. People will not accept that you switch from driving an SUV to driving what is essentially a scooter with a shell,” Lutz told CNN.
The Luvly O has been crash tested by computer simulations. “It’s not cheap to use computers, but it’s a whole lot cheaper than crashing [real] things,” he said.
The Luvly O was actually inspired by Formula One cars that are light but have a strong chassis.
A company spokesman told Goodnet, “Luvly is built via a groundbreaking patented method that utilizes flat panels and connectors to construct three-dimensional sandwich composite structures, which provides formula racing-style safety.”
The next step
While you may start seeing the microcars in European cities soon, there won’t be a huge rollout for several years. But the company has other plans to encourage the use of this new technology, reported CNN.
Luvly plans on licensing its patented flatpack design to other car manufacturers to build their own models. This is the best way to scale the use of sustainable urban microcars.
“We don’t envision that we will be major producers of vehicles, but we anticipate we will be minor producers of vehicles, to advocate for and develop the technology,” Lutz told CNN. “Despite wanting to license this to others, we also wish to stay on top of the game and be the best at our platform.”
