America has spent many years constructing among the largest, strongest and least apologetic autos on the planet.
Full-size pickups have dominated the US charts for generations, whereas SUVs have step by step swallowed up every part from household sedan to station wagon gross sales.
However one thing unusual is going on on the different finish of the automotive spectrum. Golf carts are spreading past completely manicured golf programs.
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Electrical bike gross sales are additionally booming, with an estimated 2.2 million e-bikes imported to the US in 2025 alone, whereas numerous low-speed autos (LSVs) have gotten extra frequent on public roads — and producers are all of a sudden speaking significantly about tiny electrical vehicles designed for brief hops quite than cross-country highway journeys.
We reported recently that Fiat has simply introduced its tiny, sub-$14,000 Topolino EV to the US for the primary time, whereas Swiss firm Microlino has gone so far as designing an “anti-pickup truck” particularly for American prospects. It is known as the Spider, and it is superior.
Even established automotive and mobility firms are more and more taken with autos that occupy the area between an e-bike and a traditional automotive.
None of this implies People are falling out of affection with massive autos. In truth, fairly the alternative is true. The EPA’s 2025 Automotive Trends Report discovered SUVs accounted for 60% of all autos produced within the US in mannequin 12 months 2024.
However maybe that’s lacking the purpose. The extra fascinating query is not whether or not a tiny EV can change a Ford F-150. It is whether or not People are lastly realizing that they do not want an F-150, a three-row SUV or perhaps a typical crossover for each single journey.
People love a brief journey
For anybody from the UK (or wherever in Europe, for that matter), America’s obsession with hopping within the automotive for each journey may be baffling.
Granted, this is not the case for these residing in densely packed cities, similar to New York or Washington D.C, however in suburban areas it’s the norm.
The Washington Post just lately reported that roughly 80% of each day US journeys are underneath 10 miles. It is maybe no shock, then, that federal guidelines already acknowledge low-speed autos (LSV) as a definite class.
Underneath NHTSA guidelines, an LSV is a four-wheeled automobile able to touring sooner than 20mph however no sooner than 25mph, with states and native authorities capable of set extra guidelines round the place and the way they can be utilized.
This goes a way towards explaining the current golf cart increase that has occurred in sure neighborhoods.
In keeping with The Wall Avenue Journal, the US golf cart market has grown from round $1 billion earlier than the pandemic to roughly $5 billion, with street-legal carts more and more showing in suburban communities and getting used for on a regular basis journeys quite than simply on golf programs.
However these aren’t the vague packing containers that ferry gamers and golf equipment across the course, as People are more and more turning to “tricked-out” rides that higher mirror their personalities.
Trendy street-focused carts can include seat belts, headlights, flip alerts and complicated tools, similar to navigation know-how and booming sound programs.
“Governments, companies, and facility operators are adopting electrical mobility options to scale back emissions whereas bettering operational effectivity throughout campuses, airports, resorts, and residential communities,” a current report by Persistence Market Analysis reads.
With extra refined carts on the way in which from the likes of Yamaha, Persistence Market Analysis says the following few years might show profitable for established names.
The automotive business desires in
The arrival of the Fiat Topolino within the US feels virtually like a joke at first look. It has a $13,995 beginning value, a 5.4 kWh battery and a prime velocity of simply 19mph in its preliminary specification. Even after the deliberate low-speed automobile conversion, it’ll solely attain 25mph.
However in a lot of Europe, these are already commonplace and are categorized as gentle quadricycles.
The section permits youngsters as younger as 14 to hop behind the wheel in some international locations, whereas additionally providing the advantages of a small footprint for simpler parking, decrease taxes and sometimes decrease insurance coverage prices.
Within the US, a Topolino nonetheless might sound absurd, however Fiat has a really particular use case in thoughts. The tiny runaround is designed round low-speed, short-distance mobility, placing it a lot nearer to a neighborhood EV or golf cart various than a traditional freeway automotive.
It has already focused luxurious resort chains, which can be capable of personalize the Topolino with bespoke branding and design touches, whereas upmarket personal residential estates might additionally profit from the small electrical autos as a mode of native transport.
The Verge additionally reported on Micro’s introduction of the Spider to the US market final 12 months. The corporate’s founder claims it is not constructed for the 5% of journeys the place it’s essential haul so much, however for the 95% of journeys the place you might be alone. He described it because the “antithesis of large electrical pickup vans.”
The small-car comeback is nicely underway
Kelley Blue Book reported in 2025 that People had began selecting smaller autos once more, noting that compact SUVs grew to become the nation’s best-selling automobile kind in 2020 and have continued to develop whereas midsize SUV gross sales have retreated.
The publication additionally famous that three compact SUVs — the Toyota RAV4, Tesla Mannequin Y and Honda CR-V — outsold Ram’s full-size pickup in 2025.
Nevertheless, America’s love affair with massive autos clearly is not over. In keeping with Cox’s June 2026 US sales forecast, full-size pickups and midsize SUVs accounted for greater than 30% of the market.
However the progress of compact SUVs alongside low-speed autos and different micromobility choices suggests there’s a rising urge for food for one thing smaller than the normal American default.
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The monetary argument is turning into tougher to disregard, too. Fortune reported that compact SUVs have been gaining in reputation as a result of that is “all People can afford”, reinforcing the concept smaller autos can supply a extra accessible entry level for consumers who do not want the additional dimension.
Because of this, quite a few automotive newcomers wish to exploit this newfound curiosity, with Rivian spin-off Also revealing its progressive, modular e-bike within the TM-B final 12 months, in addition to its absolutely electrical TM-Q cargo platform.
Additionally’s President Chris Yu spoke to me in regards to the “pent-up demand” for one thing extra handy than a automotive on America’s busy streets, together with his crew investigating how one can cut back the ache factors of creating the swap to an electrical bike or quadricycle.
It isn’t simply the US, both, as Honda just lately launched its tiny Super-N EV to the UK, marking the primary time it has supplied one thing from Japan’s ever-popular kei automotive section outdoors of its home market.
With gas costs spiraling, the price of autos growing and cities turning into more and more congested, shoppers are in search of progressive methods to get round, and micromobility may very well be the following huge development that helps preserve the world transferring.
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