The big test: electric superminis

Pretend, for a minute, you’re the boss of a big car company. The time has come for you to sign off on the development of a new, small electric car. And you have a number of options.

You could take one of your existing, petrol-powered cars, remove its engine and stick an electric motor in its place. Cheap? Perhaps. But tricky, and you run the risk of having to fill the boot with batteries because there’s nowhere else that you’re able to put them.

Or you could develop something entirely new – as countries transition from ICE to EV at different rates, a platform that can do both makes a good deal of sense. But if you’re feeling brave, why not give your engineers carte blanche to do whatever they