The fastest shift to electric in Europe is not happening in cars.

It is happening in the vehicles most carmakers refuse to build.

Quadricycles - the L6 and L7 category, the Citroen Ami and its cousins - are electrifying faster than any other segment on the continent. And almost nobody in the mainstream industry is paying attention.

Look at why they work. A Citroen Ami costs under 8,000 euros. It can be driven from age 14 in France. It runs at well under 1 euro per 100 kilometres. It parks where a car cannot and it does the one thing most city journeys actually require: move one or two people a short distance.

Now look at what is happening at the other end. Europe's big makers are abandoning the small cheap car. Volkswagen is halving its model range. The A-segment city car is quietly disappearing because the margins are too thin. The industry is retreating up-market, toward the SUV and the premium badge, where the money is.

That retreat leaves a vacuum exactly where the cities need vehicles most - small, light, cheap, electric. And into that vacuum the quadricycle is rushing.

There is a real question hiding here. If the affordable small car is dying, and the quadricycle is thriving, is the L-category the actual future of urban mobility - not a novelty, but the replacement?

The incumbents may be walking away from the small car just as it becomes the most interesting vehicle on the road. Not because it is impressive. Because it fits.