How Europe’s EV makers shrank their product to challenge the bloated SUVs

Jasper Jolly puts the Renault Twingo E-Tech through its paces on the streets of London. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

The winding backstreets of London, Paris and Rome are a large part of their charm. But they are also a problem for electric carmakers. For a long time, squeezing big batteries into smaller, cheaper cars to fit European streets was too much of a problem, so manufacturers focused on bloated SUVs instead.

But that is finally changing. Battery technology has improved and Europe’s carmakers havecut manufacturing costs enough that they can now sell cars that might have a chance of fitting down a medieval lane or two.