Is this the future of urban motoring...

... Or is this merely a Class 4 mobility scooter? This is the Renault Twizy (how do you pronounce that? Twigh-Zee? Stupid name, but anyhow...), on display at Warsaw's Okęcie airport. If only it could overcome the kneejerk reaction of people saying it looks like an overblown electric wheelchair, this concept could revolutionise urban transport.

Most car commutes in cities are of less than 15 miles (25km) each way. Why deploy a tonne-and-half of steel powered by a two-litre fossil-fuel engine to drag a 80kg adult into town? If pedalling to work's too much hard work, you don't want to share public transport with the plebs and you're scared of motorcycles, this could be ideal...

The Smart has gone a long way to make small city vehicles acceptable, although Top Gear insinuates that using a small vehicle to get around means you're less than 100% heterosexual.

I fear that the price of petrol and diesel needs to rise significantly before your average Varsovian can be winkled out of his or her four-wheel drive commutemobile. Apologies to those who need spacious Land Cruisers to deliver sides of beef to restaurants or pots of paint to the house they're doing up, but frankly, one-per-car, short-distance commuting is as sociable as allowing your dog to use the pavement as a toilet.