Seat presents study of very small electric car

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which has just started, Seat is presenting a fully electric micro-car concept for sharing services. The 1+1-seater Seat Minimó requires very little space and comes with replaceable batteries.

What immediately catches the eye is its resemblance to Renault’s Twizy. Like the little French electric car, Seat’s Minimó is designed to transport two people comfortably and with a minimal footprint and is also a quad. The passengers sit one behind the other in the 2.5 m long and 1.24 m wide electric vehicle.

Seat claims that the required parking space is 3.1 sqm, less than half the size of a regular car. The manufacturer highlights features such as “a high SUV-like seating position” and asymmetrical doors. “The Design of the Minimó shows the way we understand urban mobility: efficiency, high value and cost saving – combined with a vibrant design,” says Seat head of design Alejandro Mesonero. The vehicle is designed to be narrow and agile making it easier to negotiate denser urban areas.

Autonomous driving also figures into the concept of the electric quadricycle and Seat announced they would open a dedicated software company in Barcelona within the next twelve months.

The Minimó is driven by two coupled belt starter generators with 9.5 kW each. The maximum speed of the vehicle, which weighs only 450 kilograms, is set at 90 kph. The range of the battery with a capacity of 15 kWh should be just “over 100 km” according to spec. However, the battery should be replaceable with minimal effort, and the makers claim that with the removable battery, the Seat Minimó can reduce operating costs of electric carsharing businesses by up to 50%. A traditional plug-in version is not unlikely though.

The Concept electric quad Minimó made its world debut at the 2019 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona before moving to the Geneva International Motor Show in March. Seat’s head of design boss Alejandro Mesonero told Autocar that the brand is “working on the production version now which will come in 2021. The shape won’t change but the materials will.”

autocar.co.uk, seat-mediacenter.com

Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.