The world’s smallest ever production car, the Peel P50, has been brought back to life as a zero emissions electric runabout. It gives eco savvy urbanites the opportunity to abandon the G-Wiz and explore new heights of automotive silliness.Measuring at 137cm long and 104cm wide, the three-wheeled Peel P50 makes the Tata Nano look like Simon Cowell’s party limo; the Nano, which is officially today’s smallest mass production car, measures in at 310cm by 223cm.After a successful pitch on Dragon’s Den, leading to an £80,000 investment from James Caan, the new Peel company began taking orders on its pair of tiny eco cars – the P50 is joined by its ‘sporty’, very slightly bigger brother, the Trident.The three-wheeled pair both use a tiny electric engine, good for a heady 8mph top speed and a 15-mile driving range from a full charge.

So, in fact, they’re not really cars at all, with Peel stating that they’ve “been designed to meet the current UK mobility regulations, so we believe this can be used under UK regulation on a motability licence.”

The italics are ours, as is the general sense of bewilderment. Only 25 electric P50s and the same number of electric Tridents will be made.

But fear not, because production of petrol versions is going ahead now alongside the electric ones. A 49cc engine with 3bhp and 10lb ft endows a frankly terrifying 40mph top speed, although a fairly endearing 118mpg.

Peel insists that the petrol powered P50 and Trident (below) are both fully road legal, classified as three-wheeled mopeds. Around £8,000 is enough to get into a P50 – the same as a basic Volkswagen Up.

That said, Peel is offering a completely bespoke paint service alongside the four standard shades (the original red, white and blue offered in the ’60s, plus pink), so if you want yours the same colour as your high-tops, it’ll cost a lot more.

The Peel P50 was originally made in the Isle of Man between 1962 and 1965, costing two hundred quid and coming with such luxuries as a single headlamp, a windscreen wiper and space for ‘a single adult and a shopping bag’. But no way of reversing. Peel went bust in 1974.

Today, the Peel Engineering Company is a new concern run by British entrepreneurs Gary Hillman and Faizal Khan. It announced it would be reviving the P50 and Trident back in 2010, but has only recently begun putting cars on the road.

It has also launched a competition to have product designers create stuff inspired by the P50 and Trident cars. If we had the time, we’d enter with an iPad rival based on an Etch A Sketch.