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Comment by barbegal | Hacker News Reader

The reason why we don't generally have vehicles this small any more is because they don't pass crash tests so I'm wondering how this fares in a crash test. I can't see any way this could be sold in Europe unless there's some very clever engineering to make the front end more resilient in a crash.

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> I can't see any way this could be sold in Europe

It's 3860 x 1854mm, there are vehicles smaller than that being sold in europe right now (in the A segment, not quadricycles): the fiat 500e is 3632x1683, the suzuki ignis is 3700x1660. The citroen c1 (discontinued 2022) used to be just 3470x1620.

Hell there are B segment cars which aren't much bigger, the R5 e-tech is 3920x1770, the yaris is 3940x1745.

There are smaller vehicles being sold but the distance from the front bumper to the driver's legs is much longer because they don't have a bed taking up space at the back.

The vast majority of tractor trailers in Europe are cab over designs. There’s definitely less room between the bumper and the driver’s legs in those than in any standard pickup truck.

I guess modern crash safety does require decent crumple zones, but I'm not sure in how far Europe is different than North America in this.

If anything, small vehicles aren't a thing in NA, but extremely popular still in Europe, even though SUVification is also happening here.

There's plenty of small cars left, like the Toyota Aygo X. Renault is also working on a new electric Twingo, and the new 5 isn't huge either.

Probably also the open wheels would be an immediate issue in Europe, especially for pedestrians.

I love the look of the front wheels though!

The Smart ForTwo and Smart ForFour sold pretty well in Europe, and they are minuscule: the ForTwo was only 270cm (106in) long and 150cm (61in) wide!

The ForTwo has two seats and no truck bed so it can have enough space for a crash structure in front of the driver. On top of that its NCAP rating expired in 2021 and it is no longer being sold. The next generation of the ForTwo is likely to be longer in order to improve safety (if it ever makes it into production)

Light and medium duty commercial vehicles in Europe seem to be almost entirely cab-forwards designs; how do they pass crash tests?

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