Luvly O: The Ikea of EVs, With a Lighter Weight and a Focus on Safety

The Luvly O is an incredibly cute and small electric vehicle that totally lives up to its name. That name is a pun on the acronym for Light Urban Vehicle, so we're talking about an LUV that, despite its slightly angry and confused look, is as squee! as possible. Since we know looks are not everything in life, the Luvly O aims to make a difference for other things than its memorable appearance.

City life has many challenges, and, as of recent years, one of the biggest is traffic on the daily commute. Put differently, cities are becoming more crowded with people and cars, and those cars are getting bigger, but the city itself is not. As the popularity of bigger vehicles is booming, even old parking structures are becoming too small: parking spots no longer fit SUVs and parking buildings are in danger of collapsing from the added weight of today's electric vehicles.

It's a problem without an immediate solution unless everyone starts using public transport or alternative, two-wheel transportation for the daily commute. Luvly believes there's a middle way, one that won't entail sacrificing comfort and functionality, like you would with either method mentioned before. It's not the first startup to suggest a smaller electric four-wheeler that blurred the line between a bike or a quad and a passenger car, but it's the first to take a novel approach to building it.

That's where the Ikea comparison comes into play, and it doesn't mean drivers would have to assemble the car on their own. This is not a kit vehicle but a proper one, albeit small. The Luvly O would go out from the main factory in a flatpack form, which would allow transporting 20 such vehicles in a single container, as opposed to four regular-sized cars. The containers would reach regional micro-factories, where the assembly would take place.

This way, Luvly O would have a carbon footprint lower by 80% during production phase compared to other EVs and considerably lower timelines and costs. Another benefit of this approach is that a variety of models could be assembled at those micro-factories from the same components, but that one is farther down the line in the company's vision. The same micro-factories could handle recycling of all component parts, thus further lowering the vehicle's carbon footprint.

For the time being, Luvly is focused on the Luvly O, a car that's “simple to buy, to drive, to charge, to park, to own. Simple as that." Exact measures are 2,700 mm (106.3 inches) long, 1,530 mm (60.2 inches) wide, and 1,440 mm (56.7 inches) tall, with a weight of just 380 kg (837 lbs), which means the 6.4-kWh battery pack is good for 100 km (62 miles).

Per-charge range doesn't hold a candle to any of the current EVs on the market, but that's because it’s not competing with them: the Luvly O is strictly a city car. As one, that range and a maximum speed of 90 kph (55 mph) should do just fine. To further enhance its appeal as a city car, Luvly is splitting the battery into two modules, both of which are removable for indoor charging at a household outlet.

Luvly is not the only company to try to solve the issue of pollution, congestion, and efficiency in large urban areas with such a pint-sized electric vehicle, but it's the only one that claims to offer the best in class in terms of safety. That's possible through the "slow formula racing tech," where principles from formula racing are applied to LUVs. In plain words, the O is built with strong but lightweight safety cells made of sandwich composites with Energy Absorption Zones. This means that both passengers and pedestrians are protected in case of a crash, with passive safety levels comparable to those of a small car.

The interior of the Luvly is basic but intentionally so. With seating for two, you only get a minimalist, dare we say, Scandinavian dashboard with the steering wheel and a single display. Infotainment and certain features inside the cabin are monitored and controlled on the app that runs on the owner's phone. But you do get 267 liters (9.4 cubic feet) of volume in the trunk, and that should be enough for a weekly grocery run.

If you're thinking that the Luvly O sounds like the perfect city car, it's about to get even "more perfect." Luvly is proposing a €10,000 ($11,000) starting price before subsidies, which would make it the cheapest electric vehicle on four wheels. It might even be cheaper than some e-bikes if you're the kind to go all out on such a ride.

Pending certification, the Luvly O is now at the stage of registering interest, with a vague mention that whoever signs up will be notified the instant booking opens.