This vehicle is what most Americans would call a "golf cart". If it doesn't have safety features and can't be driven on highways, it's not really competing with normal cars, so I'm not quite sure the article's analysis makes sense.
I live in Uruguay and one of the best selling cars here is pretty similar, a friend has it and it's great for the daily commute:
The best sellers are BYD models, which are a bit larger but still tiny by US standards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Seagull
EVs have displaced ICE cars in Uruguay, and we usually are ahead of the trends, so I expect that to be the case in Europe and other places in coming years.