We drove a $24,000 Smart car and a $15,000 electric 3-wheeler to see which tiny vehicle is better — here's the verdict

Matthew DeBord/BI

• The Smart Fortwo and the new Electra Meccanica Solo are two of the smallest vehicles I've ever driven.
• Comparing the two is a bit of a loaded deck for the Smart because it's a bona fide car, while the Solo is an electric urban autocycle.
• The Smart takes it, but the vehicles have also been around since the late 1990s and have never sold well — so the field is open for fresh ideas!

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Big SUVs and large pickups might be dominating the US auto market these days, but hope springs eternal for smaller rides.

Daimler rolled out one of the most familiar micro-cars in the late 1990s, under the Smart brand. The idea was to offer ultra-compact transportation to city dwellers. And the vehicles are still around. I sampled a sassy convertible in 2016.

Of course, these vehicles haven't exactly caught on: only about 100 of the gas- and electric-powered vehicles sell per month in the US. 

But on paper, very small city cars still make sense, and a new player, Electra Meccanica, recently asked me to sample its all-electric three-wheeler, which can cover 100 miles on a charge and is aimed at commuters and urban inhabitants.

The Solo seats just one and costs $15,000. The Smart Fortwo has a base price of less than $19,000, although the drop-top I tested came in at $24,000.

Given that there are so few micro-cars out there, I figured it might be worth it to compare the two, although it isn't entirely fair. The Smart is, after all, a proper automobile with four wheels. I also dared to take it on the highway, while I only drove the Solo for a few hours, in Manhattan.

With that in mind, each vehicle has its virtues. Read on to learn more about them.

A Canadian company, Electra Meccanica got started in 2015 and recently began to deliver $15,000 examples of its all-electric three-wheeler to customers in the US (the firm is descended from an Italian maker of relatively obscure sports cars, Intermeccanica).

Matthew DeBord/BI

It's not large. Not large at all. In fact, I think it's the smallest product vehicle I've ever sampled that wasn't a motorcycle. It's ten feet long and four feet wide, according the company.

Matthew DeBord/BI

Also, it has not four, but three wheels. This means the Solo is classified as an autocycle.

Matthew DeBord/BI


See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• I went to Ford's Track Attack racing school. Here's what I learned from professional drivers.

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