Peugeot Voiture Légère de Ville at Sochaux Museum

The Peugeot VLV was an

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

microcar Microcar is a term often used for the smallest size of cars, with three or four wheels and often an engine smaller than . Specific types of microcars include bubble cars, cycle cars, invacar, quadricycles and voiturettes. Microcars are often ...

made by

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...

in 1942. VLV stood for ''Voiture Légère de Ville'' (Light City Car). The car's announcement, on 1 May 1941, triggered some surprise, since Peugeot was the only one of France's large automakers to show interest in electric propulsion at this time. It was powered by four 12V batteries placed under the hood (bonnet) giving it a claimed top speed of and a range of . The car had two wheels at the front and two at the back. The rear

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

, however, was very narrow, thus dispensing with the need for a differential for the driving wheels. The VLV was built during the war as a way to side-step fuel restrictions imposed on non-military users by the occupying German forces. Yet, it was banned after only 377 examples were built.

References

Microcars Electric vehicles introduced in the 20th century {{Classicprw-auto-stub Cars introduced in 1941 1941 in France Peugeot vehicles