Microlino released a second video of its Italian production line. It clearly presents a more advanced production stage than the one we showed our readers last April. The new footage comes with more information about how things are going there.
According to the company, the Microlino 2.0 will be produced in a final assembly line installed in a 3,000-square-meter (32.292-square-foot) area. That confirms it is quite a small footprint compared to what we see with regular cars. A 30 meters (98 ft) wide terrain that was also 100 meters (328 ft) long would be equivalent to what Microlino occupies at CECOMP.
Covered with solar panels, the assembly line will employ about one hundred people. A new Microlino 2.0 will leave it every 20 minutes when manufacturing goes full steam. Over 80% of Microlino’s parts are made in Europe, most of them coming from Italy.
The company is now producing its last pre-production vehicles. We suppose they will be used for final tests and also for test drives in the cities where the company already has some vehicles for demonstration. We have mentioned all of them in our previous article. Not even one has Microlino 2.0 units so far, only the ill-fated 1.0 version that Artega produced.
Speaking of Artega, the company’s website is now suspended. Instead of presenting the Karo and the company’s other businesses, it informs that it is “currently in an economic restructuring process and will be strategically repositioned under new management in the future.” If you are unaware of how Artega got involved with Microlino, the story is quite interesting.
When Micro-Mobility announced it would make the Microlino, its Italian partner was TMI (Tecno Meccanica Imola). The company was sold to Artega, which decided it would sell a competing vehicle based on the Microlino apart from producing it. Micro-Mobility could not make it with anyone else.
That led to a lawsuit that was settled. Artega got to keep the Karo design, and Micro-Mobility was free to produce its bubble car with another company. It chose CECOMP and created a joint venture with it. The Microlino underwent massive changes and became a much better product.
When the deal was closed in January 2020, we assumed that the Artega Karo would reach the market much sooner than the Microlino 2.0. It was promised for a much higher price than the one the Microlino 2.0 will have. Now, we’ll have to see if it will ever reach production lines. The Microlino 2.0 already has, and its manufacturer promises that customers will soon be getting them. When that happens, we’ll make sure to tell you about it.
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