Photo: Electricbrands
In our last article about the Microlino 2.0, we discovered that Artega was under new management. In other words, the company that tried to make a Microlino competitor based on the Microlino itself went bust. According to Autohaus.de, the buyer is Electricbrands, the company behind another trendy electric vehicle, the XBUS.
The plan is to make the Artega Karo in Göttingen, but it is not clear if Electricbrands has a factory there or if it was an Artega facility that was included in the package. Electricbrands’s headquarters are in Itzehoe, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) from Göttingen. Artega’s former headquarters are closer: about 150 km (93 mi) from the new Karo factory. If you remember the whole story, things get even more complicated.
The Microlino was supposed to be produced by TMI (Tecno Meccanica Imola), in Bologna. Artega bought TMI from the Tazzari group – apparently already planning to produce the Microlino under its own brand.
When Micro-Mobility refused the idea and said it was unhappy with the quality of the prototypes Artega produced, a legal dispute took place. Micro-Mobility had a deal with TMI that made it the exclusive manufacturer of its bubble car. The agreement did not preview that TMI could be sold or controlled by a third party, which was what eventually happened.
To avoid a lengthy and expensive situation, Micro-Mobility allowed Artega to have the project as long as it could make the Microlino with another partner. That was when the Swiss company associated with CECOMP, creating a joint venture that gave it a lot more control over the idea and also improved the Microlino to a much more modern design, with a stamped unibody instead of the plastic body with a tubular frame the Microlino 1.0 presents. The Artega Karo should use this project to reach production lines.
We are calling it Karo because this is the way the Artega website still refers to the bubble car. According to Autohaus.de, Electricbrands will call it something else when deliveries take off at the beginning of 2023. The company said it intends to produce 30,000 units of the vehicle. According to our sources, that is quite optimistic given the development stage of the bubble car.
Electricbrands also promised to start deliveries of the XBUS in 2023. The latest we have heard about it is that the vehicle will now have two optional 15-kWh battery modules that will increase its range to 600 km (373 mi). The standard battery pack presents 15 kWh, and it offers a 200 km (124 mi) range. With more weight, the 600-km range also seems optimistic. We’ll follow both the Karo and the XBUS as closely as possible.
The Microlino was supposed to be produced by TMI (Tecno Meccanica Imola), in Bologna. Artega bought TMI from the Tazzari group – apparently already planning to produce the Microlino under its own brand.
When Micro-Mobility refused the idea and said it was unhappy with the quality of the prototypes Artega produced, a legal dispute took place. Micro-Mobility had a deal with TMI that made it the exclusive manufacturer of its bubble car. The agreement did not preview that TMI could be sold or controlled by a third party, which was what eventually happened.
To avoid a lengthy and expensive situation, Micro-Mobility allowed Artega to have the project as long as it could make the Microlino with another partner. That was when the Swiss company associated with CECOMP, creating a joint venture that gave it a lot more control over the idea and also improved the Microlino to a much more modern design, with a stamped unibody instead of the plastic body with a tubular frame the Microlino 1.0 presents. The Artega Karo should use this project to reach production lines.
We are calling it Karo because this is the way the Artega website still refers to the bubble car. According to Autohaus.de, Electricbrands will call it something else when deliveries take off at the beginning of 2023. The company said it intends to produce 30,000 units of the vehicle. According to our sources, that is quite optimistic given the development stage of the bubble car.
Electricbrands also promised to start deliveries of the XBUS in 2023. The latest we have heard about it is that the vehicle will now have two optional 15-kWh battery modules that will increase its range to 600 km (373 mi). The standard battery pack presents 15 kWh, and it offers a 200 km (124 mi) range. With more weight, the 600-km range also seems optimistic. We’ll follow both the Karo and the XBUS as closely as possible.
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