Developed in Britain, designed for Europe: Meet the Mika Mino

Cars are too big and too expensive. Our roads are too small, our pockets not deep enough. The all-electric Mika Mino is here to fix that.

Next time you step outside, take a look at the cars around you and ask yourself: “When did I last see a properly small car?” The answer to that question – unless you’re a member of a classic car club – is most likely to be “a while ago”.

Autobesity – it’s a growing problem

Cars have got bigger. Much bigger. In fact, autobesity is so endemic that 52% of all cars sold in the UK are now wider than the minimum-specified parking space of 1.8 metres.

And it’s not just a UK-specific problem, either. Should the European Union’s proposed M1e class of EV get the stamp of approval, cars within that category could still measure up to 4.2 metres long. While not exactly packing the heft of a BMW iX (below) or a Hyundai Ioniq 9, that’s still bigger than a Renault 5 or a Mini Electric.

A step in the right direction, sure, but M1e still won’t address the problems that inner-city mobility faces. Sure, L7 class electric quadricycles such as the Citroen Ami and the Microlino go some way to addressing the issue, but they’re not exactly… desirable. And they lack many of the safety features we take for granted in our cars.

If you are a masochist, public transport is another option for getting around, but it’s an often grim experience.

What, then, if there were another way of traversing some of Europe’s most congested cities without clogging up the roads, using public transport, or sacrificing the basic safety features of “proper” cars.

Cue the Mika Mino

Well, thanks to the Mika Mino, there is.

The brainchild of car designer/composites expert Nir Kahn – who you see below – and automotive engineer Robin Hall, the Mino – as Kahn describes it to EV Powered – is an “L7 car with the amount of safety you would normally get in a £25,000 Renault 5, but for around £10,000 less”.

Based on Kahn’s all-electric Urban Runabout concept, the Mika Mino is built on three fundamentals: Low weight, small footprint, and high driver engagement. With their decades of combined automotive expertise, both men feel they have the ingredients to cook up, well… the ultimate urban runabout.

In simple terms, the rear-wheel-drive Mika Mino car will be “a three seater, pretty much the same length, height, and width as the Smart Roadster from 20 odd years ago”. For reference, the Smart measured 3.3 metres long; slender by today’s portly dimensions.

To keep things cheap and simple, the Mino runs on 48V electric architecture, and comes with a choice of two battery options: a 20kWh unit fit for around 120 miles, or a 10kWh pack capable of 65 miles on a single charge.

Given the average European city car customer travels roughly 22 miles per day, the Mika Mino offers no more, and crucially, no less than what’s required in an urban environment. It also tips the scales at around a lithe 500 kilograms. There’ll be no autobesity here.

Oh, and Mika? Mika was founded by Robin Hall, who still owns and runs the company from its Warwickshire base. Like Kahn, Hall (pictured below) is another leading British automotive mind who honed his craft during the heady car years of the 1990s and 2000s, where budgets were bottomless, and the sky was the limit.

Embracing the original Mini’s ‘less is more’ philosophy

While working at Rover during the decade of Cool Britannia, Hall found himself in charge of developing the front axle system for the first of the ‘new’ Minis, the R50. Ahead of the car’s 2001 launch, it was at then-BMW-owned Longbridge that Hall mastered the dark arts of making front-wheel-drive fun.

In his own words, he was at the behest of “our paymasters in Munich, who said ‘this has to be the best-handling front-wheel-drive car in the world’. No pressure, then”.

The original Mini penned by Sir Alex Issigonis served as Hall’s muse. “I couldn’t think of anything better than an original Mini as inspiration,” he recalls. “They’re an absolute hoot to drive, because they’re light, and have a steering ratio of 15:1.”

If, like me, you’re far from scientifically minded, a ratio of 15:1 means that for every 15 degrees the steering wheel is turned, the front wheels turn by one degree. This ratio requires less input and returns a go-kartesque driving experience. Think ‘fast and fun’, and you won’t be wrong.

Hall continues: “Since the R50, whenever I’ve designed anything sporty, I’ve thought to myself, ‘well, let’s have a steer ratio of about 15:1’, so I’m certain the Mika Mino will feel a little bit like an original Mini in terms of its fun factor.”

The  steering ratio isn’t the only characteristic inspired by the Mini. The battery is positioned close to the rear axle, which houses an integrated drive system (IDS). When fitted to an EV, an IDS usually comprises electric motors and inverters to save space, improve efficiency, and reduce the number of components in vehicle production.

According to Hall, “this is the cheapest, lightest, possible setup, and like the original Mini, it proves that cheap and simple can work exceptionally well.

“I’m certain that the Mika Mino will handle extremely well and turn out to be enormously good fun.”

Turning the L7 concept on its head

While driver engagement is something L7 cars are desperately in need of, safety is just as vital. Drawing on decades of experience with composites, Kahn delves into the revolutionary approach behind ensuring that the Mika Mino becomes the safest car in its class.

“We’ve been working with a company that has some very interesting technology for cost-effective, lightweight composites,” he explains. “They normally use that technology to take the weight out of M1 cars [full passenger cars].

“What we’ve done here is use that same technology and turned it on its head. So rather than taking weight out of a heavier car, we’re putting the safety into a lighter car.”

The Mino will be structured around a multi-material composite safety cell, which absorbs all of the impact in the event of a collision. As for the actual materials used in the Mino’s construction, don’t ask.

“I can’t say the exact materials we’re using, but they’re not 100% carbon fibre, and they’re not 100% composite,” says the designer. “But having supermini levels of safety in a car that measures 3.3 metres long is something quite unique, I would say.”

What’s next for the Mika Mino?

Yet all of this begs one major question. An elephant in the room, even: How are Kahn and Hall so sure of their product, when a physical Mika Mino doesn’t exist yet?

“We’re working with a company that specialises in FEA, or finite element analysis, which is the dynamic simulation of composite materials in crash situations,” Kahn explains. “We’ve conducted a full feasibility study of the vehicle, which includes front impact and side impact simulations, showing that the vehicle will be able to achieve a five-star Euro NCAP rating.

“So far, the results are showing we are on target to achieve that. The next stage, absolutely, is building real prototypes and slamming them into walls and validating the simulation.”

Beyond crash testing, the next step is finding partners willing to assist with putting the car into production.

“We’ve had a lot of interest and positive feedback – in fact, 90% of the components are there, and we’ve had some healthy conversations with medium and large-scale car manufacturers,” Hall wraps up. “We’re now just waiting for the right investor to come along and enable us to get to the next stage.”

As to what’s beyond the prototype stage, it involves what Kahn describes as “turning the wick up”. There’s even talk of a Mika Mino-based Formula E support series. But that’s for the next time… and I say “next time” with certainty, because there will surely be a second chapter in this revolutionary little car’s story.