has ventured back into the realm of the microcars, although other players are also gearing up. One of those is ARK, founded by serial entrepreneur Yilmaz Bora in order to capitalise on the neighbourhood electric vehicle trend.
ARK’s first car, the Zero, is clearly not designed to travel on any kind of highway. A micro-car-style tandem two-seater, the aluminium-bodied Zero swathes its low price with minimal design details to add maximum character, from the smiling ‘face’ to the soft pastel colour scheme. Crucially, the Zero has a very similar scale and stance to the current crop of Chinese micro-electric cars, where NEV is a major market sector.
The Wuling Hongguang Mini is China’s best-selling EV, with a host of other manufacturers crowding into a space where cute, compact and ultra-comfortable cars are helping mobilise the younger demographic. ARK is betting they’ll also take off in the West. The little ARK Zero might not have the AMI’s design innovation, and its Chinese OEM origins are hard to conceal completely, but it is potentially the lowest-cost car on the British market. What it feels in the rough and tumble of urban traffic, towered over by buses and facing off with mopeds, remains to be seen. Nevertheless, ARK hopes that for those who need to get from A to B at minimum cost without getting wet , then the Zero will be without equal.