The exciting story of Isetta

It is an unusual thing, but it can happen to fall in love in a museum, even if you aren’t a cars’ lover, and you don’t know anything about that world.

Visiting Touriseum in Meran, Italy, inside of the marvellous Trauttmansdorff, a triumph of gardens and flowers, while you are walking across the interesting evolution of travel behaviours since XIX century, you can meet a little automotive jewel, which has marked the Fifties.

The BMW Isetta is an authentic icon, a new way to look to the future, in order to overcome Second World War atrocities, building a revolutionary means of transport, suitable for carefree family outings and capable of giving a turning point in the automotive market, above all in Germany.

This adorable car represents a different model to think about the sector and four wheels mobility, spreading hopes and winds of change throughout Europe: the adventurous travel starts with Isetta’s planning, born in Italy.

 

Desire to leave again… with Iso Isetta

During the second postwar period, people need lightness, elegance, evasion, to forget poverty and suffering and convey their own strength towards human, social and political rebirth.

Citizens’ well being is slowly improving, consequently, this context favours the rise of mass mobility, always more important in the following decades; times are ready to welcome a kind of car with unusual features, far from military purposes, moving last technologies, now underused with the end of the war, to the civil sphere.

The opportunity is exploited by the Italian engineer Renzo Rivolta, who produces scooters and motorcycles at his factory “Iso Spa”, and he thinks to create a car which is very small and comfortable at the same time.

Renzo Rivolta’s “Iso Spa” is established in 1939 in Bolzaneto (in the province of Genoa) and at first, it is specialized in public and private refrigeration systems; then, in 1943, the factory is relocated to an industrial building in Bresso, near Milan, starting household appliances production.

After the war, Rivolta intercepts the Italian demand for cheap means of locomotion, so he decides to deal with affordable vehicles, from motorcycles to little cars.

The industrialist avails help of two clever aeronautical engineers, Ermenegildo Preti and Pierluigi Raggi, instructing them to draw a tiny car, which can set up the engine already used for his two wheels successful creations.

The result is an extraordinary “egg shape” car, whose first prototype is realized in summer 1952: it already has many definitive structure characteristics, such as the unique front door to pick up all passengers, in a maximum of two.

The Iso Isetta is officially presented at Turin Motor Show on April 22^nd 1953 and people are immediately surprised by this avant-garde object: even if it has a simple structure, without sophisticated functionalities, the car seems a futuristic artwork, coming from the future, a genuine innovation for the period.

This special car can be rightly considered a genial intuition for its technical traits: interiors are livable, there is wide glazing, while the front door, with side zipper, incorporates the steering column, which tilts to facilitate the entrance to the passenger compartment; the engine is rear, next to a little luggage rack.

Beyond some details that exalt the car’s aesthetic refinement, the Iso Isetta has a fabric sunroof, weighs less than 500 kilos and it is able to reach 75 kilometres per hour.

The Iso Isetta is handy and it has excellent driving performances, like an exemplary holding road and speed, compared to its bigger competitors, but sales are poor in Italy; despite the Iso Isetta participates in “Mille Miglia” competition in 1954, achieving good results, the disappointing commercial outcome doesn’t change, probably because its price isn’t so lower than other popular four-seater cars, making the Isetta not very competitive.

The Iso Isetta’s fate seems sealed, its disruptive diversity risks falling into oblivion, forgetting its bright and unexpected debut…

Luckily, Renzo Rivolta gives a chance to relaunch his “creature”: the nice Isetta crosses Italian borders towards Germany, meeting a new owner and becoming even more elegant and appreciated, with a little restyling.

A famous automotive brand, in deep economic and creative crisis, is going to introduce on the market a renewed star, in the core of the Bavaria region.

 

BMW Isetta 250: a new beginning

The decision is made: the Italian proud engineer sells Isetta’s license to BMW, the great automotive company established in Munich, fresh from a series of failed models and positively impressed by the tiny strange car.

A new chapter begins.

The Bavarian automotive factory wants to produce a model which requires few investments and the Isetta is perfect for its new commercial strategy; moreover, this kind of vehicle satisfies customers’ needs, because Germans are looking for a small city car, with low fuel consumption, useful as the second car and for those who have little experience in driving.

The new Isetta renamed BMW 250 (“Isetta” stays as a nickname, flanked by the periphrasis “bubble car” for its funny reduced shapes) is submitted to the press on March 5^th 1955, confirming Isetta’s original structure; evident changes are exclusively the headlights, placed upper, and the addition of a standard heating, absent in the first version.

The vehicle is available in 45 colours and the motorcycle license is enough to drive it (the Isetta is registered as two wheels mean of transport), avoiding the expensive car license.

Although safety standards aren’t so high in this period, the BMW Isetta 250 is clearly insecure: in case of a frontal crash, passengers can escape from the sunroof only, so a prominent steel bumper is added in the following versions.

In spite of these debatable defects, the BMW Isetta 250 conquers German market: in the first year 10.000 specimens are sold, then the charismatic “egg shape” car spreads to other countries; during the eight years of its realization and marketing, the Bavarian Isetta sells 161.728 exemplars overall, including some diverse models, such as the BMW Isetta 600 with four seats.

Even if some improvements are added, Isetta’s production ceases in 1962, with the advent of other more modern and comfortable cars, like the innovative Volkswagen Beetle.

People with more prestigious vehicles but, even though changes in fashion and aesthetic tastes have followed each other along decades, nowadays the BMW Isetta is one of the most sold single-cylinder cars in the world; it is shown in various museums, first of all, BMW Museum in Munich, which honours its uninterrupted popularity with a wide section dedicated to this bubble car.

And today there is a sort of return to the past, rediscovering ancient automotive glory through technological progress and environmental sustainability.

 

The new Microlino between Swiss design and Italian manufacture

Moments of inspiration often give life to the most brilliant intuitions…

And that has happened to Wim Ouboter, the founder of “Micro Mobility System”, a company which has been creating environmentally friendly means since 1999.

Inspired by a television service, he proposes to realize the Microlino in 2018: a microcar, entirely electric and without emissions, almost identical to the famed Isetta, its perfect heir.

The main idea is to suggest a versatile means of transport, capable of facing daily urban traffic, also overcoming parking problems.

The new Microlino preserves the original Isetta’s “egg shape”, can reach 90 kilometres per hour and has an autonomy between 120 to 215 kilometres, according to its use; the car can be recharged in one hour at a public column, while it takes four hours by a home socket.

At first, Microlino’s production is entrusted to the German Artega, whose prototypes don’t satisfy Micro’s quality standards, provoking delays in starting its realization.

Not to want to wait more, Artega decides to make it by itself, announcing the Karolino, a pure Microlino’s copy, without Micro’s authorization and adding over 150 changes to the Swiss original project.

After various legal disputes, at the end of 2019, Artega continues to produce its bubble car “Karo”, while the Swiss brand relies on the Italian Cecomp, an automotive company founded in 1978 by Giovanni Forneris.

Microlino’s initial plan is further improved, focusing on eclectic bodywork and driving performances, creating the Microlino 2.0: its production will start in September 2021, in order to ultimate the already booked 20.000 exemplars.

The starting price is 12.000 Euros, which tries to launch Microlino as a low-cost electric car, even if it is more similar to a refined whim than a cheap sustainable city vehicle…

 

But let’s leave out those practical details, which sometimes obscure the enthusiasm and the desire to see life from a particular perspective.

It is important to conceive something far from the ordinary, able to stimulate fervent imagination, furthermore emulating unmistakable idols belonging to the past.

Time after time, since Iso Isetta to Microlino, every project, however little or viewed with distrust, not only hides a new challenge to the future, but it is also the inimitable sign of a unique, feverish mind, which defeats mediocrity and apathy, giving space to precious, limitless creativity; the real engine that keeps the world colourful, lively… simply alive.

 

Sources:

The Isetta comes back with Microlino. (n.d.). Repubblica. https://www.repubblica.it/motori/sezioni/attualita/2018/01/01/news/torna_l_isetta_tutto_come_ai_vecchi_tempi_porta_anteriore_e_stesso_design_debutta_la_microlino-187741787/

The Isetta is reborn as electric car. (n.d.). La Stampa. https://www.lastampa.it/motori/nuovi-modelli/2018/01/25/news/l-isetta-rinasce-elettrica-si-chiama-microlino-e-costa-12-mila-euro-1.33971676

New Microlino since September 2021. (n.d.). Al Volante. https://www.alvolante.it/news/microlino-produzione-parte-settembre-2021-372096

The story of BMW Isetta 250. (n.d.). BMW Official Site. https://www.bmw.com/it/automotive-life/storia-BMW-isetta.html

The story of Iso/BMW Isetta. (n.d.). Inexhibit. https://www.inexhibit.com/it/case-studies/lincredibile-storia-iso-bmw-isetta-prima-city-car/