All I can say is WOW! let's save the planet, I want mine now! Just gotta persuade all those Americans, mind you, with their roads, they could double the capacity ;)

I've still not figured out how i'm going to get an extension lead half way round the block to plug the thing in.

Why is it that designers always feel the need to give electric or other 'eco' cars such crappy looking wheels?

I quite like it!

Makes the smart car look very dated and uneconomical and the Polo Bluemotion look incredibly overpriced!

Yeah, I bet VW want a slice of the huge profits Merc makes with their Smart operation.

Oh, hang on ...

God that's ugly, must be the Cock Up!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Looks like a sequence of Daihatsu/Toyota rip-offs to me (Aygo, Materia, etc) and they actually do not look that bad in real life. They do not drive bad either.

'Chico' eh? I think I'l wait for Harpo and Groucho (definitely not Zeppo though)

Contain the direct drive motors, used for drive and breaking.

this means no transmission losses and upto 4 per car!

Serach for the 'PML QED Mini' now known as Hi-Pa drive.

The wheels do not contain the direct drive motors.

Considering that VW has built the Citi Chico (a low-cost Golf I derivative) and later successors in Africa for the last 15+ years and the basic model goes for around the 6K price (converted), it is not too far-fetched. :-)

What IS that thing driving the car in the 2nd pic on the first page?

you may be right AC (and I hope you are!) - but whenever I've heard these claims there's always a few more £K on there by the time they reach the UK market :-)

That said, I'd still be tempted . . .

If you put the motors there then you have more unsprung mass.

For those who don't know the consequences, Google "unsprung mass".