It would seem that electric microcars were born with the Citroën Ami and the Fiat Topolino. Two urban quadricycles, speed-limited, perfect for the local hypermarket run and neighborhood hops. And yet. A tiny battery-powered Californian had already been doing exactly the same thing at the dawn of the 1960s, with a look—a mini American car with fins—that would bring a smile to any passerby.
This oddball is called Electric Shopper. A toy-like motorized contraption, all sculpted headlights, rear fins and a white roof, roughly the size of a large sneaker. Today, a blue-and-white example surfaces in American classifieds, priced like a new city car, with a very simple promise: take you shopping… and bring you back home, but not much farther.
Electric Shopper: the Electric Microcar Before the Ami and the Topolino
Behind this toy-car silhouette lies the Electric Car Company of California, based in Long Beach, which launched its Electric Shopper at the very start of the 1960s. The current listing is a 1961 model. Beneath its tiny rear hood, you’ll find an electric motor of only 1.5 horsepower, powered by a lead-acid battery. No rocket ship in the acceleration department, but enough to top out at about 29 km/h (roughly 18 mph).
On autonomy, the car claims roughly 48 km of range. That’s not too far off from what a modern Fiat Topolino can claim, listed at about 74 km. The speed gap isn’t dramatic either: the Shopper maxes out at 29 km/h while the Topolino was initially limited to about 30 km/h in the United States, before later creeping up to around 40 km/h. For a car born five decades earlier, the difference is surprisingly modest. And with a small lead-acid battery, charging costs are nearly nothing for the owner, just as it was back in the day when these vehicles sold on the premise of almost symbolic operating expenses.
A 1960s rarity built for errands… and for collectors
The example making waves today would be blue with a white roof and would show roughly 207,000 km on the odometer. It’s being offered for around $12,500, or about €11,500. A sizable sum for something that strongly resembles a full-size Little Tikes toy car. The seller makes a hard-to-dismiss argument: there are only about fifteen Electric Shoppers left in circulation worldwide. This one is among only seven cataloged examples, with two housed in museums, one on display at the Route 66 Electric Vehicle Museum and another having passed through the Petersen Automotive Museum.
At that price, the comparison with a brand-new Fiat Topolino falls into place by itself. For a similar budget, the diminutive Italian car—nicknamed “Topolino,” meaning “little mouse” in Italian—offers more speed, more range, seating for two adults, and a much more modern interior than the Shopper’s stark driving cockpit. A specialist broker has even recently offered a 1961 Electric Shopper for about €23,000 to be imported to France, a sign that this micro-electric is chiefly of interest to enthusiasts willing to pay a premium for a rare piece. The one certainty remains: for fetching bread, cruising the cul-de-sac, and returning to the garage in a puff of amused smiles, more than sixty years after its birth, this quirky micro-EV still does the job quite neatly.
