As soon as he learned that Italian customs had blocked Topolino, Fiat’s small license-free cars, at the border because they wore a tricolor flag even though they were manufactured in Morocco, Wim Ouboter had a brand added green-white-red on the wings of his Microlinos. Unlike the Stellantis group’s small vehicle, the Italian version of the Citroën Ami, its electric micro-car is manufactured from A to Z in Turin.
From stamping to painting, its aluminum body is crafted in La Loggia, a few kilometers south of the capital of Piedmont. The assembly line, where cables, battery, motor, bench and wheels are installed, is very artisanal. No robots, but workers who work quietly until the last stage: the installation of this front door, the signature of the model. As with the Isetta, an iconic car from the 1950s, you enter the Microlino from the front, by opening the large door on which the steering wheel and dashboard are attached.
The latter displays a small Swiss flag, the nationality of the Ouboter family. In the 1990s, Wim Ouboter invented the foldable aluminum scooter. He has sold 90 million worldwide. Despite the cheaper copies, it still sells 3 million a year in 80 countries. “It is so popular that the children’s model is part of the inflation basket in the United Kingdom”, underlines Rémy Dumont, director of Microlino France. This is provided by the Belgian group D’Ieteren (Carglass, Autodis, Oscaro, etc.), owned by the family of the same name for seven generations. They were the first to believe in the Ouboter initiative. Wim got into the automotive business with his two sons, Merlin and Oliver, and his wife, Janine, a financial director.
“It employs 70 people”
A good idea ? At 64 years old, the Zurich resident, with a youthful appearance in his Microlino polo shirt, does not speak wooden language. “If I had known in advance everything that awaited us, perhaps I would not have done it”, he concedes. Micro scooters made his family’s fortune, but the car is struggling to find an economic model. “My sons are 28 and 30, and we did this project together. There is nothing better. It’s fantastic. And it’s already a form of return on investment! After all, there’s more to life than money! “, he declares, trying to put up a good face against bad luck, but recognizing that, at Microlino, the money goes too quickly and doesn’t come in enough.
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