The Squad Solar electric microcar is a brand-new vehicle that's the brainchild of two former Lightyear employees.
And it's a rather interesting proposition in the increasingly crowded urban runabout vehicles category, where the Citroen Ami, Microlino, and City Transformer are trying to make a name for themselves.
Admittedly, all of the models mentioned earlier are an entirely European affair, but here's where the Squad Solar EV wants to be different because its makers are preparing to launch the pint-sized grocery-getter in the United States, presumably as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) and after it's debut on the Old Continent.
To introduce the Squad microcar to the world, its makers called up the good people from the Fully Charged YouTube channel, who took the little car for a spin in the Netherlands and made a video review, which you can watch at the top of this page.
In the 17-minute production, the presenter says that a great deal of attention was employed when designing the safety features of the Squad, with the microcar benefitting from an aluminum exoskeleton and crash structures both in the front and rear.
Additionally, there's a rather clever positioning of the wheels, which stick out just a tiny bit further than the bumpers, meaning that you could always touch a curb and not worry about damaging the body.
The roof is completely covered by a solar panel which can potentially produce enough energy for trips of over 19 miles (30 kilometers) per day if it's really sunny outside. In the Netherlands, where it's more cloudy than in the south of Spain, for example, the potential range gain slips to about 12 miles (20 km) per day.
The solar array on the roof feeds power to a set of four removable and swappable battery packs, each of which can store 1.6 kilowatt-hours of energy for a total of 6.4 kWh.
Two electric motors rated at 2 kilowatts each draw power from the batteries and put the Squad Solar in motion, allowing for a limited top speed of 28 miles per hour (45 kilometers per hour) in the L6 category vehicle.
But it wasn't built for speed. Instead, efficiency is the name of the game, with the latest prototype achieving 12 miles per kWh, which is three times better than the Tesla Model Y AWD.
And with an estimated price of around $7,000 (6,250 Euros), it's certainly one of the most affordable microcars out there.
Go check out the video embedded at the top of the page and then head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts on the Squad Solar EV.
