Frankfurt motor show: Peugeot BB1

This is the Peugeot BB1 electric concept car, which has been unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show.

The two-door four-seater is 2.5 metres long, and has an electric range of 75 miles.

Peugeot says its priority was to create a versatile, compact and manoeuverable vehicle.

The four adults sit tandem fashion, with the rear seat occupants' legs wrapping around the torso of the front passengers in the same way that a pillion sits behind the rider of a motobike.

The BB1's occupants also adopt the posture of bike riders, their seats providing no more than vestigial backrests, this packaging being the key to the Peugeot's provision of four seats. As with a bike, the driver steers via a pair of handlebars, which rotates through 40 degrees each way for a very compact seven-metre turning circle.

BB1 is propelled by two rear-mounted in-wheel electric motors co-developed with tyre-maker Michelin, which has been working on this technology for some years.

Each motor develops 20bhp peak power, but more significantly, 236lb ft at each wheel. No wonder designer Yann Pissonier, who has driven the prototype, describes BB1's acceleration as 'vivacious'.

It's top speed is currently 56mph and range is 75 miles from its under-seat lithium-ion batteries, but those figures are likely to improve with development.

A Peugeot spokesman describes the project as 'very serious', hinting at production. Intriguingly, he also described the BB1 as being on the edge of qualifying as a quadricycle, and believes that it will need a new homologation classification.

Peugeot's motorbike division has played a key role in the concept's development, its tubular steel understructure similar to a motorbike's. The concept's body is carbonfibre, contributing to its low 550kg weight, though a production version would be clothed in different materials to reduce costs - a rough price for this city transport would be half the price of the Mitsubishi-based Peugeot Ion, at 15,000 euros (£13,000).

Sitting in the BB1 is impressive, for the 'bike seating position as well as the unexpected impression of space, part-provided by the glass roof, but also the compactness of its saddle-like seats.