Biscuter 2000
The Biscuter 2000 project was born in 1984 with the help of Juan Andreu Socas, who at the time was the commercial director of Autonacional, the company that had manufactured the old Biscuter.
The Biscuter 2000 was a vehicle that, according to its promoters, would have nothing to do with the old design of the fifties. It was aimed at “young people for comfort and safety when traveling, housewives, the elderly and the disabled”.
The project included three different engines. The first was a 49 cc two-stroke single-cylinder engine that would give the microcar a top speed of 50 km/h, with an average fuel consumption of 2.6 liters per 100 km. This version would be approved in all EEC countries, allowing it to be driven without a license.
The second version would be equipped with a 250 cc engine, a four-speed gearbox with reverse gear and a maximum speed of 110 km/h. Fuel consumption would be 3.1 liters. The third version would be equipped with a 359 cc diesel engine, with a top speed of 75 km/h and a diesel consumption of 1.8 liters.
The Biscuter 2000 was 2.2 meters long, 1.4 meters wide and 1.3 meters high, with two or three seats and a curb weight of 210 to 260 kg, depending on the engine. It was presented as a targa with a removable top, although it could optionally be equipped with rigid doors with open sections in the shape of gull wings.
The project specified that the base price of this vehicle would be around 350,000 pesetas and that production would be 24,000 units per year, although according to the promoters, the market could absorb more than 30,000 vehicles per year.
On October 13, 1985, the deputy of Huelva, Antonio del Valle, defined the announced construction of the Biscuter factory in La Palma del Condado (Huelva) as a bluff and accused the mayor of that city, Mr. Francisco Reyes. Mr. Francisco Reyes, to make an “apology” for the project through the institution that he presided.
Antonio del Valle expressed his doubts both about the viability of the project and about the project’s promoter, Juan Andreu Socas, who, according to him, is currently being tried in the Valencia courts for the bankruptcy of the company Lioprasa, of which he was president.
The parliamentarian referred to the answer given by the Minister of Industry of the Andalusian Government, in the sense that the Junta de Andalucía would not support the initiative because there were no serious market and financing studies.
Del Valle emphasized the financial aspect of the project to denounce the unconventional financing system used, which consisted of the popular subscription of shares of 25,000 pesetas each.
The news that the promoters wanted to build the car in this town, with the support of the mayor who had “conditionally” granted them some municipal land for the construction of the factory, was a breath of fresh air for a town in clear economic depression, since it could mean the creation of 200 jobs in the medium term. The problem was that almost 400 inhabitants came to the popular subscription of shares and the project never materialized.
The house started with the roof, because there was talk of building a factory before there was even a prototype of the Biscuter 2000, which, according to its promoters, would cost around 60 million pesetas.
