Cars in European cities are smaller than ever. But as Europe’s appetite for microcars has grown, the friendly Italian ‘yogurt cups’ have largely ceded to small Chinese electric vehicles. Even ElegantThe iconic ultra-compact car brand has moved its manufacturing to China.
Spanish startup liux believes it can compete in a crowded market with a small electric car built around sustainability.
Following in the footsteps of Microlino outside Switzerland, liux is trying to gain a foothold in the market with its next microcar, the Liux Big. The name “Big” is a joke. It’s small enough to park at right angles to the curb; but the name also reflects the enormous ambitions of a team that rarely takes the expected path.
“The idea of a European car does not exist,” Liux co-founder Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros told TechCrunch. Coming from the CEO of a startup whose cars are already making headlines for being “made in Spain,” it was a surprising take and one that reveals a lot about the company’s priorities.
It is true that Liux opened The first new car plant in Spain in more than 30 years. But as we sat in their elegant showroom, Espinosa and his co-founder, David Sancho, said they had come to the conclusion that a fully sovereign supply chain is unattainable. Instead, Liux is trying to navigate that reality by keeping sustainability as his north star.
Liux batteries are not manufactured in Europe, but can be recharged at home, even with power generated from solar panels. The car must also be easy to maintain and avoid the faster obsolescence cycles of modern cars. Perhaps most notably, its fiber body is made from a novel flax-based biocomposite designed so that the material can be extracted and recycled later.
“One thing that is very clear to David and me is that recycling is not just a lab concept. You can recycle almost anything in a lab. What makes something recyclable has to do with how it is constructed,” Espinosa said. “When you build something, you have to try to preserve the integrity of the material and components so that a second life is possible.”
“Real circularity” is where Espinosa comes from; previously co-founded auraSpanish B company that sells natural mineral water in recycled and recyclable bottles. But after a bigger player acquired With this successful brand, he embarks on a new stage with Sancho as co-pilot.
When it comes to cars, Sancho is in charge, with low emissions on the radar. Their specialty is designing electric vehicles that can rival gasoline ones. Before Liux, his most impressive feat was the Boreasa hybrid supercar presented at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2017. But after a falling out with his former partners, he and Espinosa came together to found Liux.
The first prototype of Liux, the animalcombined their know-how: the all-electric five-seater was made almost entirely from recycled or plant-based materials. And yet, the two co-founders decided to pivot shortly after introducing the SUV to the world in 2022. it was then that they certain that your chances of completing homologation would be much better with a smaller car.
Fast forward to 2026, and Liux has secured Homologation at European level for Liux Big, which hopes to start selling in the first half of next year. Meanwhile, the company has grown to 65 employees and is preparing to increase production at three facilities in Spain.
These include the plant that TechCrunch visited in Azuqueca de Henares, about an hour’s drive from central Madrid.
Liux’s factory in Azuqueca is small because it follows Toyota’s “lean management” principles and performs only the last steps in the process, said its production manager Beatriz Belda González, a Spanish engineer who previously worked for BMW in Munich. But don’t be fooled by its size: Liux claims its production capacity could reach 20,000 cars a year by 2030.
It is still early to gauge demand, but more than 7,500 people have joined the waiting list for a Liux Big. Joining doesn’t require a fee, but the list has helped the startup learn more about its potential buyers. The most represented profile is that of an urban dweller between 55 and 60 years old, and Liux now assumes that the Liux Big will often be the second car in a family.
This may dampen hopes that microcars could challenge traditional car ownership, but Liux has to pick his battles, Espinosa said. Rather than trying to guess where the market is headed or how fast, the startup is keeping the door open to partnerships with companies that manage B2B fleets and others that could help make its cars autonomous.
For Espinosa, the Liux Big could already make a difference by offering a more sustainable and affordable option. The startup has not confirmed its final price, but said it will be less than 18,000 euros (about $21,000) before possible subsidies for electric vehicles. This puts it at the upper end of the price range for microcars, but Liux expects it to punch above its weight, literally.
According to Liux’s R&D manager, Celso Fernández Llorens, weight and size limitations are a huge limitation in this category. In his opinion, most microcars are quite similar, despite the fact that European authorities differentiate The L6e ultralight four-wheelers differ from the slightly heavier L7e. Liux, however, solved these limitations to make the most of its L7e homologation.
Thanks to a litany of big and small decisions, the startup managed to fit a 260-liter trunk in the car. But most of its efforts went into ensuring that users felt like they were driving a car, rather than a two-wheeled vehicle. This is also closely related to safety, Sancho said: you don’t want a car that is light just because its structure can’t withstand a crash, or it will fall over in the first corner.
With this in mind, and despite the fact that its category does not even require crash testing, Liux has been testing and showing the Liux Big’s ability to slalombraking and performing other maneuvers. The startup demonstrated some of those capabilities to TechCrunch during a short ride and test drive in its upcoming off-road version.
For now, its main model will have two versions: 15 kWh and 20 kWh. A cargo version is also planned and, with Sancho on the team, the temptation to build a supercar is never far away. in a LinkedIn postThe company noted that it does not intend to be “a one-car brand.”
First, however, Liux will use the €16 million it has raised so far (about $18.5 million, including European funding) to bring the urban version of the Liux Big to market through partnerships with car dealers across Europe.
The showroom where we met is also a preview of Liux’s future sales experience, said brand manager Ana Terrado Leyva. He pointed to textile screens, 3D models showing the Liux Big’s three color options (two more than the Ford T) and a linoleum floor as a nod to linen. These aesthetic choices, he said, are another way Liux hopes to differentiate itself from its Chinese competitors.
Maybe the idea of a European car exists.
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