1974 TVE Citadine three wheel electric car - photos

[Altair]

1974 TVE Citadine three wheel electric car from France.








Previously:

1993 Keeble K3 three wheeler - photos
Norsjo Shopper three wheeler - photos
1956 Puch Laro three wheeler - photo
1981 Trimuter three-wheeled kit car - photo
1965 Peel Trident three-wheeled microcar - photos

[Bony]

Mmm, so how do you get out if you have a head-on accident ?

[mklotz]

Mmm, so how do you get out if you have a head-on accident ?

Or someone (parallel) parks you in ? Actually, if you have a head-on accident, the emergency responders will have plenty of time to extricate your corpse with their can opener.

[Frank S]

3 wheeled tricycle type vehicles have been around since the late 1700s, but have pretty much always been ill fated. in the 1950's an Italian company along with several other European car makers brought the concept back to the forefront as an economical means of producing post war commuter vehicles fewer parts meant less cost less weight more economical to own and drive. Among these the Izetta was one of the most popular licensed from Isa Spa to many different car makers in several countries BMW bought the license as well but redesigned their Izetta so much that none of its parts would interchange with anyone else's it also became one of the most popular bubble cars of its time. In the advent of a front-end accident the passengers could exit through the fabric sunroof. some of the others had a rear opening that would allow exit.
theis little electric car has some of those same features as the cars of the 50s and 60s. If you will not in the second picture the whole rear of the car opens up as denoted by the hinges near the top and a latch at the bottom I don't know if it was able to be opened from inside or not though.
Starting in 1973 American automakers were being forced to install bulldozer blade sized bumpers on front and rear of their cars to appease insurance lobbyist and safety Nazis in congress This was because they were of the opinion that no vehicle should receive any damage whatsoever in crashes of 5 MPH or less. What they failed to acknowledge was that the lighter cheaper cars up through the 1920s had already done much better than this, with their curved spring bumpers many would receive zero damage up to around 15 MPH Lighter weigh less kinetic energy to dispel.
This little electric has a fairly nice, curved pipe bumper and corner protector it 2 like vehicles were to collide low speeds likely as not neither would receive a lot of damage the problem here though is those smaller vehicles had to share the highways with cars like the Mercedes and the huge Bentley's The bigger the car the more they are driven like bulldozers. Why do you think so many people want to drive the larger SUVs instead of the smaller crossovers