The team behind Squad Mobility recently presented the solar powered electric microcar and wants to change the way people commute in the city. We talked to Robert Hoevers, CEO of Squad Mobility, to find out more about the electric microcar.

As cities, especially large ones, get busier and busier and parking spots are few and far between, citizens should start to look at alternative transportation methods for how they move around the city for things like visiting relatives, doing small grocery shopping and commuting to and back from the office.

For these kinds of activities, a microcar should be more than enough, providing a comfortable and safe ride for the everyday city drive, while taking up very little space in traffic and in the parking lot.

This is at least the way Squad Mobility views things, as the Dutch-based startup founded in 2019 by two former Lightyear colleagues aims to change the way people move around the city with their recently launched electric microcar. We first wrote about the solar-powered microcar here.

Robert Hoevers, one of the founders has experience in the automotive industry as former GM at A1GP Netherlands, which was the Dutch team of A1 Grand Prix, an international racing series, and also one of the initiators of the FIA Formula E, a racing competition made for electric cars only.

He was also one of the early employees who worked for Lightyear, the maker of a luxury solar car, and after spending some time in the company, he and Chris Klok decided to make a vehicle for the mass market that people could afford.

Chris Klok, who is Chief of Design at Squad Mobility, is experienced with regards to developing mobility products on two and four wheels.

His experience includes working on Renault advanced interior concepts, designing Piaggio motorcycles and even played part on the development of the PAL-V flying car.

At Lightyear, he was in charge of the whole engineering and prototyping team, and currently, he does the research and development for Squad Mobility.

The challenges of developing an electric microcar

According to Robert, the biggest challenge when it came to the development of the company's microcar was ensuring that the product will fit between the price of an electric scooter and a more affordable normal gas-powered car.

"Electric scooters or normal scooters in the EU they are between 3.000 and 5.000 euro and the most affordable cars, petrol cars start around 13.000-15.000 euros and we needed to put the Squad right in the middle of those, so around 8.000-9.000 euros. That's not easy, it's still a little car, a complex product with a lot of engineering and work to make a product like that", Robert told us.

With large-scale production starting in the second half of 2023, the company started taking pre orders, and currently, Robert shared that Squad Mobility receives "50 pre orders a day", and depending on the pre order option that customers opt for, they can get the vehicle in less than a year.

The Signature Edition pre order option, for example, which is the most expensive one at 5.000 euros upfront and gets you the top spec Squad microcar, would allow users to get their hands on the vehicle as early as that.

The Signature Edition pre order limit is for the first 100 Squads, while the next pre order tier is the Pioneer Edition and can be taken for as many as 1.000 Squads.

The car can be pre ordered by people outside of Europe as well, and Robert stated that "for outside Europe, the pre orders are actually free. This is because outside Europe, we have not decided yet where we go first. We might go first to the USA or the Middle East, for example, and for that reason, we decided that we offer the pre order for outside Europe for free."

Customers outside of the European continent will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on the vehicle, which is part of the reason for the lack of a pre order tax.

"We get a lot of demand from the USA, from the Caribbean islands as well, from holiday locations, from cities for sharing platforms, from Asia. There is hardly any country in the world where people have not done pre orders yet", Robert shared with us.

He also thinks that the worldwide interest for the Squad microcar comes from the fact that the car is actually solar powered, which really gets people's attention, since the car can get up to 20 km of range back in the batteries through the integrated solar panels in a sunny European summer day.

An electric microcar produced in Europe

As far as manufacturing goes, Squad Mobility works with various suppliers from around the world to get the parts necessary for the vehicles with "most of the procurement coming from China and some of it from India."

The assembly and sub-assembly of the vehicles will be done in China as well, Robert told us, with the final assembly being done inside of Europe, which "will probably be in Eastern Europe, and I'm actually talking with some Romanian companies also about that."

It remains to be seen for now if the final assembly will be done in Romania, but if this ends up happening, it could provide a nice boost for the local economy and would help the employment as well.

Robert explained that "it could be that we go to Romania (for production), because Romania is one of the European countries with the best hourly wage and the country also has a history in automotive, so Romania could be interesting."

We were curious about the amount of investment that the company secured so far and how it plans to use it for the development of the Squad electric microcar, with the last announced investment being in 2021, but company officials chose not to disclose any numbers and told us that all the money go towards the development of the vehicle.

Sustainability, one of Squad Mobility's priorities

With a history in sustainability as well, Robert is interested in this aspect and how to make the Squad microcar more environmentally friendly.

"The first aspect about sustainability of a vehicle is actually the weight of the vehicle, because the heavier the vehicle, the more materials you use. So, if you make a product like this, you should make it as light as possible. The less material you use, the less demand you do on the Earth", Squad Mobility's CEO told us.

When it comes to "reusing" in a vehicle, Robert believes that this is closely tied to the repairability of the car.

He explained that "we have put a lot of effort in the durability of the vehicle, because the longer people use a product like this, the more sustainable it is. If you can repair it, if you can replace parts easily, that's a very important factor."

The fact that the Squad microcar is powered by solar panels is a nice sustainability bonus, but power consumption plays a big role, as well, and according to the CEO of Squad Mobility, "the energy use per person per kilometer is better than a train."

This way, Robert thinks that his company's microcar has the upper hand against public transport.

By generating the energy through the solar panels when possible, storing it in the batteries and then using it when it's needed, this is one of the most efficient ways to comfortably move around the city.

When you add the fact that you can also take the batteries home to charge them at the outlet, it means that you shouldn't face the same range anxiety as other EVs.

When it comes to the materials used for the vehicle, Robert's team went with aluminum, since it is "one of the best recycled metals in the world."

"The other part of aluminum is that the vehicle is light, which makes it more efficient, and the last part of aluminum is that it doesn't rust, so the vehicle is more durable and it can be repaired more easily", he added.

Since a car is also made of plastics on the inside, Squad Mobility tries to use as much recycled plastic for its electric microcars as possible, which is also a great sustainability bonus, since other companies plan to make more vehicles more sustainable with regards to the materials used on the interior.

How Squad overtakes other microcars

When it comes to the competition, the Citroen Ami is Squad's biggest competitor, so the Dutch startup had to differentiate itself in a meaningful way in order to compete with the well-known French carmaker.

Robert shared that "the most important thing is the solar charging, that's something we have and the competition doesn't. We are the first to do that, the second aspect is that we have swappable batteries, so with the Squad there will fit a maximum of four swappable batteries, which you can carry, if you live in an apartment. You can take them inside and charge them inside, so if you don't have a charging point and solar is not enough for you, then you can charge the batteries outside the vehicle."

Solar charging could prove a huge selling point for ride sharing companies that might add the Squad into their fleet, since the solar panels would allow the vehicles to be charged during sunny days, which means that a charging infrastructure isn't as critically important as with other EVs.

Another big advantage for a small vehicle like the Squad is the fact that it is quite a bit shorter in length when compared to the Ami, measuring two meters flat as opposed to a little over 2.4 meters on the French car.

This makes a big difference when it comes to parking the vehicle, since you can actually park the Squad transversally on a parking spot, so that three Squad microcars can take up what it would normally be a single spot for a regular vehicle.

Collaboration with ride sharing companies and future plans

This could benefit sharing companies a lot, since parking is one of the issues that drivers who use these services sometimes face.

Since we mentioned ride sharing platforms, Robert's company is in talks "with many, many of them" to implement the Squad into their fleet, and these companies seem to be very interested in the vehicle thanks to its integrated solar panel system, because keeping their fleet charged up is one of the main challenges they face.

"It's very expensive to keep your vehicles charged, you have to go every day, you have to go through most of your vehicles to either put them on a charging point or exchange batteries, and with solar charging, you can charge up to 20 km in a day, which takes down a large portion of that cost and makes it very comfortable for the user and the sharing platform operator", Robert told us.

As far as Squad Mobility's goals for the rest of the year, the company looks forward to moving the car towards production and then, in 2023, it hopes to make the first pre-production and production Squads.

The basic Squad Solar, which costs an estimated 6.250 euros, comes with two battery packs, good for 50 km of range, optional doors and optional air conditioning and the option to buy extra batteries for longer range.

The top of the line Signature Edition gets you the top spec model for an estimated price of 9.300 euros, with four batteries that will offer up to 100 km of range, full doors with windows and air conditioning.