Can this tiny car help reduce traffic jams?

The man responsible for creating one of the fastest and most desirable supercars of all-time, the awesome McLaren F1, has released his latest creation - and it’s a very different vehicle.

Gordon Murray Design, headed by its namesake who shaped the McLaren, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and a range of Formula One cars, has turned his attention to making the streets less congested.

The result is this quirky-looking mobility pod, dubbed the Motiv, is technically speaking a quadricycle because it weighs less than 450kg but Murrary has designed it to meet passenger car crash standards for optimum safety. It’s powered by a 20kW electric motor paired to a 17.3kWh battery that provides a claimed range of 100km. With a top speed of only 65km/h the Motiv has been designed for urban use.

Murray has designed it for a single occupant, but to ensure maximum efficiency has made it as small as possible, measuring only 2.5m long and 1.3m wide the Motiv is designed to slip through city streets taking up as little space as possible.

For this project Murray has teamed up with Delta Motorsports (who will build the powertrain) and mobility specialists, itMoves, to produce it using Murray’s iStream concept for low-cost vehicle production.

“Motiv has the potential to transform future mobility,” Professor Murray explained. “The best way to make any vehicle commercially viable and cost-effective, while delivering first-class efficiency, is to make it as light as it can be while retaining the highest levels of safety. With Motiv we have used our iStream technologies to create an ultra-lightweight body structure that delivers a vehicle that is compact, refined, safe and versatile, while remaining capable of significant range.”

The Motiv has also been designed with autonomy in mind and its developers will begin testing those systems as soon as the mobility pod launches. While the Motiv will make its public debut overnight in London, it isn’t expected to hit the streets for at least two years in the UK.