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City car

A city car (or urban car) is a small, moderately powered automobile intended for use in urban areas.

It is comparable in size and features to a neighborhood electric vehicle ("NEV"), has four seats, and is typically long. These cars have been sold in Europe since the 1960s, and now are an official car classification. Most mainstream manufacturers have one or even two city cars in their lineup.

The city car's convenient speed and occupant protection allow relatively safe operation in mixed traffic environments and in all weather conditions.

Internal combustion engine city cars

Early ages

One of the earliest city cars was the American-made Crosley, a four passenger vehicle from the late 1940s. While many cars of the 1950s are small enough to be considered city cars today, these cars have been replaced by larger cars with each passing generation. Exceptions are the smaller Fiats, especially the 1957 Fiat 500 and Fiat 126. They were in the region of 3.0 metres in length, but had seating for four people, putting them outside the microcar category.

The Fiat/SEAT Panda, launched in 1980, was 3.40m long but was clearly aimed at the city car category, and did not grow significantly larger during its development. The replacement for the 126, the Fiat Cinquecento was presented in 1991 as a true city car. At only 3200 mm long, it had room for four and entry-level prices.

The boom

In the late 1980s superminis had grown so much that many buyers wanted even smaller four-seat cars. Renault followed Fiat in 1993 with the Renault Twingo, which featured a MPV-like design and interior room, despite its size and height (3430 mm long and 1420 mm tall). Combined with an original exterior and interior design, it quickly became a best-seller. In 1996 the Ford Ka was presented with its radical New Edge design. Its egg-shaped body did not leave much room in the rear seats, but many customers did not need them and preferred the Ka over more conservative designs.

In the mid 1990s, South Korean brands Daewoo and Hyundai introduced their city car entries, both for the Asian and European markets. The Hyundai Atos, launched in 1997, was 3500 mm long and 1600 mm high, which was much taller than any European models (usually under 1450 mm) and provided considerable interior space. Its boxy shape provoked mixed reactions.

The Daewoo Matiz followed in 1998 with a Giorgetto Giugiaro design and a moderate height (1500 mm), which proved more eye-catching. Hyundai tried to react to this with the rounder Atos Prime but without much success.

These Korean city cars were much cheaper than most of the European models, especially the Opel Agila (2000) and Volkswagen Lupo (1999), yet were still reliable. However, sales were dominated by the Renault Twingo and Ford Ka.

City car / supermini crossovers

While small family cars and superminis grew considerably from the 1990s to the 2000s, the same happened with city cars. After some new superminis grew to be over 3900 mm long (like the Ford Fiesta, the SEAT Ibiza, Maruti Alto and the Volkswagen Polo), some automakers developed city car models more than 3650 mm long.

The first of these models was the Nissan Micra (2002), which is 3720 mm long and smaller than many superminis of the late 1990s. Other cars are the Citroën C2, Suzuki Swift, Smart Forfour, Toyota Yaris and Peugeot 1007 (the last one which can also be labelled as a mini MPV).

These vehicles are hard to classify, since their size does not fit the "city car" or "supermini" categories. A possibility is to compare the price and interior room with superminis: the Yaris is definitely a supermini, whereas the Tata Indica is closer to a city car.

In addition, in the last few years some "true" city cars were released: the Fiat Panda (2003), the Kia Picanto (2004), the Citroën C1/Peugeot 107/Toyota Aygo (2005), Renault Twingo (2006), Fiat Nuova 500 (2006), the Ford Ka (2006) and Hyundai i10 (2007).