If this article had emerged on April 1st, then I would expect such an article to be ten-a-penny – a flat-pack style 2-seater city car called the Luvly O, built in Sweden.
As kit-cars go (sort of), this will be slightly different, as the kit-car part of the element allows that the car can be shipped directly to where it is required with minimum ease.
Fear not though, as the ubiquitous frustrated flat-packer isn’t going to be flying down the motorway and finding an extra nut and bolt rolling around in the footwell, wondering which crucial part that bit was missed from securing.
No, the design is intended to be built by someone who knows what they are doing and will put together a car that won’t leave any extra nuts and bolts unused…
Flat-Pack Kit Car
Conversely to what the flat-pack notion implies, Luvly has actually intended the little city car to be well protected and deliver best in class safety as they put it. Luvly describes it as ‘slow formula raching tech’, which basically means applying formula racing car safety technology to a the Luvly O.
Of course, every new concept car must now arrive with some sort of sustainability concept too in an attempt to appease potential customers. With an electric vehicle, the main port of call here has to be the battery; an item that will inevitably have a limited lifespan. This goes together with the car’s minimal size too; as the car weighs in at around 400kg, then using a more lightweight battery will become part of the Luvly O’s sustainability as such. In fact, the whole car’s body itself can be recycled according to Luvly.
Eco-Friendly Built In Microfactories
The Luvly O will be able to be shipped in the form of a flat-pack to microfactories thus reducing the usual pollution and emissions incumbent with travel. Each vehicle is able to be designed and to be delivered to the nearest local microfactory saving time and money.
It’s always a concern that such a very small car – and inevitably a kit-car – will potentially compromise on safety, so Luvly has put together the ‘slow formula racing tech’ which, maybe rather clumsily, means that the little car has the same ability to be able to offer passive safety as per the usual standard small car.
There may be a bit of an elephant in the room though, as the ethos that is going into admirable levels of connectivity and sustainability has arguably left the car looking, shall we say, a bit less sleek than similar vehicles. There is a level of compromise here of course, but it’s the sort of car that will be aiming for usability rather than, well, anything else really.
Luvly O – a flat pack kit car with swappable battery
55mph and 62 miles on a single charge, the perfect city car?
While there is less information here than we might want to know, and there is a lot more to be asked, what we do know is that the car is very lightweight at 400kg, and will travel at a top speed of 55mph and will achieve 62 miles on one charge of the swappable battery.
There is a slight disappointment here, as something so lightweight might well have been perhaps pushing the boundaries of just how far such a car could go from A to B on one charge. But electric powertrains can be surprisingly hefty and we are trying to be sustainable after all. Maybe that will arrive in the future, should the Luvly O manage to grab a corner of the market.
All in all, the Luvly O will arrive on your doorstep at a cost of £8,000, and while all the sustainable flat-pack lightweight-ness goes, that isn’t a bad price.
Images: luvly.se
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