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I test-drove the only street-legal electric microcar in the US, and it’s wild

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Electric microcars are a tricky to define subset of motor vehicles, especially in the US. Open-air neighborhood electric vehicles, fancy golf carts, and other small vehicles tend to blur the line, leaving microcars in that weird category of “I know it when I see it.” Now after recently test-driving one myself from the New York-based startup Wink Motors, now I definitely know it.

There are a few different street-legal microcar-style EVs in the US, but most take the form of golf cart-style buggies. Some are even actual golf carts that have been souped up with the required hardware to make them street legal. That leaves Wink as pretty much the only low-cost, car-like, and street-legal microcar in the US, at least for now.

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Low-cost tiny electric cars like these could be the next big thing

It’s true that prices for many leading full-size electric cars have dropped slightly in the last few months. But even a $50,000 Tesla is still much harder to afford than an electric micro-car that can cost a quarter of the price. Those smaller electric tiny cars, NEVs, and LSVs also come with big advantages over their full-size cousins, saving more than just cash.

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The Tesla Model 3 is seeing the most interest in these cities

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Tesla will start taking reservations worldwide for the Model 3 in the morning of March 31st and the closer we get to the event, the more it looks like it will be an iPhone launch-like pandemonium. Coincidentally, Apple is also releasing its new iPhone SE on the same day, and a lot like it’s a less expensive version of its flagship phone, Tesla is also launching a less expensive product built on the knowledge it accumulated while developing its luxury sedan and SUV.
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