Easter special: Cars that look like eggs (ranked by eggyness)

Easter has crept up on us quite early this year, but we’ve managed to scramble together some egg-cellent content just in time. Cars that look like eggs? You must be yolking right?

But no, our list proves that egg-shaped vehicles might be more common than you think. We had a cracking time in the office rating their eggyness.

Without further ado, here’s the top five cars that look like eggs just in time for Easter – ranked by eggyness.

5. Citroen Xsara Picasso

Think back to a time before the Qashqai. Back in the early 2000s, it was the once ubiquitous MPV or multi-purpose vehicle that reigned supreme. And if there was ever a car that defined this segment, it was the Citroen Xsara Picasso.

More recently a favourite of Ronnie Pickering, the Xsara Picasso was actually quite an interesting design when it came out. With removable rear seats and even a foldable shopping basket in the boot, it was a family favourite for more than a decade.

Its roomy interior came courtesy of a rather bulbous – and in our opinion quite eggy – silhouette. More than worthy of a place on our list of the eggiest cars.

4. Nissan Micra K12

It seems the early noughties were a great time if you wanted an egg-shaped car, with the K12 version of the Nissan Micra offering some very curvaceous lines. Available with a range of economical engines, it was one of the most affordable new cars on the market – and very popular it was too.

It’s long since been replaced with a more angular and modern model though, with production of the K12 (aka the eggiest Micra of them all) ending in 2010.

3.Mitsubishi i-MiEV

As post 2000 egg-shaped cars go though, it’s the Mitsubishi i-MiEV that must take the prize, and comes in at third on our list. Introduced in 2009, it was originally a Japanese Kei car and also spawned in the UK under the guise of the Peugeot iOn and Citroen C-Zero.

It’s hard to believe just how far electric vehicles have come in the last decade. Its range of just 60 miles might have had something to do with a slow uptake in the UK. Or it could just be the fact that it looked like a boiled egg.

2. ISO Isetta

For the eggiest of cars though, we’ve got to go back in the pages of history to post-war Europe. At the end of the Second World War, there were lots of manufacturers that created weird and wonderful vehicles to help get Europe back on the road.

Half motorcycle and half car, some of these vehicles had more than a passing resemblance to an egg. The most successful of the post-war microcars – and arguably the eggiest – was the BMW Isetta. It came with a 10hp two-stroke motor and was available in three- and four-wheel form.

0 to 30mph? That took around 50 seconds. 0 to 60mph? Impossible. Top speed was around 52mph. Interestingly, the Isetta was badged as a BMW in Germany and it was essentially the genesis of the modern BMWs we see today.

1. L’œuf electrique

The Oeuf Electrique literally translates as the Electric Egg, so it’s only right that we crown this odd French contraption as the eggiest car on our list. It might be questionable whether this thing actually constitutes a car though.

It was actually designed by a futuristic designer named Paul Arzens in 1940s. With petrol at a premium in occupied France, Arzen presented this fully electric microcar to the world in 1942, and could be seen zipping around Paris.

Only one model survives, but it’s unquestionably egg-shaped. It seems Arzens was on to something too; while they might not be formed like an egg and made entirely of plexiglass, the likes of the Citroen Ami now offer a small, petrol-free alternative for transportation in busy cities.

Bonus egg content

As an extra Easter treat, we wracked our brains to bring you a few more egg-cellent egg-related car facts, however tenuous. How egg-citing.

Porsche’s flawed fried eggs

The Porsche 996 hatched in 1997, and brought with it one of the biggest (and most controversial) styling changes the 911 ever had: a flush set of headlights incorporating the indicator. Porsche purists generally scorn the 996 today, and a lot of it has to do with what became known as its fried egg headlights.

After a year or two, they removed the orange section of the indicator, but the name had stuck. It might have been an attempt to modernise, but it was so unpopular that Porsche relented and, with the arrival of the 997 in 2004, the headlights went back to their classically round design.

Ploughed fields and French peasants

No list of egg-related cars would be complete without an honourable mention of the Citroen 2CV. It looks more like a snail than anything else, but this was a car designed with the safety of eggs very much in mind.

Designed to deal with the rutted roads and rough fields of post-war France, the designers created a unique suspension that would enable the driver to carry a basket of eggs across rough terrain, safe in the knowledge they won’t be broken.

If you’re looking of a way to get those Easter eggs home, this might be the car for you.