The city car segment has been shrinking for years as manufacturers have struggled to make decent profits from vehicles that are regulated just the same as a Range Rover or BMW 7 Series.
The problem has been compounded by the move to electrification because the cost of the battery is even harder to mask in something sub-4.0m long. You could reduce the size of the battery, but buyers might not accept the paucity of range.
Look what happened to the Honda E city car – pulled from Europe after just three years on sale because not enough people were happy to pay £37,395 for a car with a range of just 130 miles.
However, European car makers think they’ve hit on the solution: introduce a new electric category similar to Japan’s diminutive kei class that restricts aspects such as size, weight and power but unlocks certain benefits not available to larger cars.