Süddeutsche Zeitung recently wrote about microcars appearing more often in Munich: Microlino, Fiat Topolino, Opel Rocks, Citroën Ami.
They still look unusual. In a city shaped by BMW Group, AUDI AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, a small 45 km/h vehicle can easily be dismissed as a toy.
I think that would be a mistake.
These vehicles are not trying to replace every car. They are testing a much more interesting question: how much car does an urban trip actually need?
That question matters because Europe has spent decades making cars heavier, more complex and more expensive. Even small cars gradually absorbed big-car logic. More equipment, more expectations, more cost. Then the industry wonders why affordable urban mobility has become so difficult.
Microcars are not the whole answer. They bring real issues: safety perception, weather comfort, noise, limited speed, limited range, and regulation that still does not properly reflect what cities need.
But they also expose something important.
Many trips in a city are short, predictable and space-constrained. For that use case, a full-size car is often an inefficient solution. A small electric vehicle that is easy to park, cheap to run, and simple to charge can make much more sense than people expect - unless you think that cars in itself are to be prohibited.
This is why the L6, L7 and M1E debate matters.
Not because Europe should lower standards blindly.
But because Europe needs more categories between bicycle, scooter and full-size car.
The old European small cars were not perfect, but they were honest. They moved people. They made mobility accessible. They were designed around the realities of their time.
Today, the reality is different: crowded cities, expensive vehicles, limited parking, climate pressure, urban deliveries, ageing users, younger users and households that may still need mobility, but not always a full car.
Microcars are still a niche.
But they point to a bigger question Europe needs to answer:
Can we design simple vehicles for real urban use again?