The “World’s Smallest Car” is now available in electric form. Actually, neither of them is available, but they do exist.
The T.27 from Gordon Murray Designs is a battery-powered version of his T.25 microcar, which can fit three people, driver seated in the center, even though it’s stands on a footprint that’s only about two-thirds the size of a two-seat Smart Fortwo.
The ultralight T.27 weighs just 1,500 pounds, a ton less than a Nissan Leaf. This being the case, it only needs a tiny 12 kilowatt-hour battery pack -- half the capacity of the one in the Leaf -- to deliver between 100 and 130 miles per charge.
Intended to be used mainly for urban transportation, its top speed is just 65 mph and accelerating from 0 to 60 mph takes “less than 15 seconds.” According to its creator, a former Formula One racing car designer, the T.27 uses 29 percent less energy per kilometer than a Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, making it the “World’s Most Efficient Electric Car.”
