Urbanina
In an 18th-century villa in the Tuscan countryside, in the early 1960s, Marquis Pier Girolamo Bargagli Bardi Bandini and the brilliant technician Narciso Cristiani designed and built an electric car that proposed an alternative, zero-emissions form of mobility—at a time when environmental awareness had yet to emerge, homes were heated with diesel, and the era of high-octane gasoline was in full boom.
This unconventional idea took shape in the lemon house of the Villa di Poggio Adorno, located between Santa Croce, Castelfranco di Sotto, and Fucecchio. In this small workshop, what can be considered the first mass-produced electric car was conceived: a microcar, as we would call it today, designed to adapt to congested urban streets, fit into the tightest parking spaces, and, above all, produce no pollution.
The Marquis brought his vision of a new kind of mobility—compact, economical, and clean—to Narciso Cristiani, whose creative ingenuity, supported by a small group of passionate collaborators, led to the invention of solutions that, nearly sixty years later, are found in modern electric vehicles.
The idea itself was born from the Marquis’s personal experience. During long stays in Rome, away from the quiet of his Poggio Adorno estate, he found himself increasingly irritated by the noise and chaos of city traffic.
This discomfort inspired him to imagine a different kind of urban transport—practical, environmentally respectful, and cost-efficient. To bring this vision to life, he turned to Cristiani, a highly skilled technician from nearby Staffoli.
Cristiani came from a well-off family but chose to pursue mechanics instead of managing the family mill. During World War II, he worked at Piaggio, where he met Corradino D’Ascanio, the creator of the Vespa. He later opened his own mechanical workshop and ventured into the used car trade between Milan, Lucca, and Livorno, though with limited success.
When approached by the Marquis, he was immediately captivated by the challenge. Their long-standing relationship and mutual trust made the collaboration natural, and the Marquis’s resources and connections proved invaluable.
The requirements for the new vehicle were simple but precise: a small, two-seater city car, easy to access, easy to park even in extremely tight spaces, and powered by an electric motor. It would be called “Urbanina,” identified by a simple lowercase “u” as its logo. A workshop within the Poggio Adorno estate was dedicated to the project.
Despite its ingenuity, the Urbanina project was short-lived. In the early 1970s, production ended, and its equipment and patents were sold to Zagato. The solutions it proposed were too advanced for the technology of the time—particularly in electronics and battery systems—and its vision of zero-emission mobility was far ahead of an era that had yet to prioritize environmental concerns.
1st series
As mentioned, the goal was to create a small car suited for city use, at a time when urban environments were just beginning to become congested. One might imagine Narciso Cristiani drawing inspiration from vehicles such as the Fiat 500, the Isetta, small German or British microcars—miniature versions of “real” cars—or, for electric drive, the quirky American golf carts.
But this had nothing to do with what Narciso had in mind.
Narciso Cristiani developed a completely innovative project—one could call it revolutionary compared to what was available at the time. He started with an X-shaped chassis, with the wheels positioned at its four ends, onto which he mounted a rotating platform housing the steering wheel, dashboard, and two seats for the driver and passenger.
The platform, along with the cabin, could rotate 360°, allowing access from any direction. Equipping such a small vehicle with a rotating body was a brilliant idea—forward-thinking and visionary. Consider today’s traffic and, above all, the parking challenges in large and medium-sized cities.
The front suspension, with springs and shock absorbers integrated into the wheel control arm layout, resembled the MacPherson suspension that, from the 1970s onward, would be adopted by most front-wheel-drive, transverse-engine cars (the “Giacosa” layout).
As for the “bodywork” completing the platform, three interchangeable options were available: the “base” version with a simple windshield, the “primavera” version featuring a charming wicker cabin that made it resemble a large fruit basket, and the “berlinetta” with an enclosed plastic structure for greater protection.
The first version of the Urbanina was powered by a conventional internal combustion engine derived from the Lambretta 175, mounted under the cabin and driving the rear axle. The gearbox had three speeds with steering-wheel control.
The fuel tank, battery, and suspension components were located beneath the rotating platform. With the Lambretta engine, the total vehicle weight was about 260 kg, top speed reached 86 km/h, and fuel consumption was just 3 liters per 100 km. Its dimensions were extremely compact: 1.96 meters long—about a full meter shorter than the already tiny Fiat 500 of that era. For modern reference, a Smart measures 2.69 meters.
Period photographs show the Urbanina parked “knife-style,” tightly squeezed between two cars, with the passenger able to choose—by rotating the cabin—whether to exit onto the street or the sidewalk.
The vehicle was presented at the 1965 Turin Motor Show, where it sparked more curiosity than real interest, along with some skepticism and even amusement, particularly because of the wicker cabin and minimal finishes. It was simply too innovative for an era when the car was, for many, also a status symbol.
When it came to developing the first electric version, Narciso faced the challenge of the motor itself: at the time, electric motors suitable for small vehicle propulsion were not available on the market. Early prototypes used a small 700 W motor powered by four 100 Ah batteries. The range was limited—about 40 km—and the top speed was modest at 30 km/h. A later version adopted a 1 kW Bosch motor derived from units used during World War II to rotate the guns on German naval ships.
In the first type of electric transmission, motor speed—and thus vehicle speed—was controlled by varying the voltage at the motor terminals in discrete steps: 12 V for first gear and reverse, 24 V for second, and 36 V for third. Gear changes were achieved via a power selector with electrical contacts that connected the batteries in series or parallel, thereby altering motor speed.
The transition between gears was abrupt and made driving uncomfortable. Later, in some models, the selector was replaced with contactors controlled by a low-power selector, maintaining the same principle while overcoming the limitations of the original system.
The batteries were custom-built by Tudor, with a structure better suited to the discharge curve, offering 250 Ah capacity. They were assembled into a single pack that slid along rails beneath the chassis, allowing quick replacement with a fully charged unit—remarkably similar in concept to modern battery-swapping solutions.
2nd series
The second generation of the Urbanina was presented at the 1967 Turin Motor Show, featuring an electric version alongside a more conventional two-stroke Lambretta engine increased to 198 cc.
For the cabin, a less basic and more protective design was chosen, adopting—also thanks to Narciso Cristiani’s good relationship with Piaggio—the structure of an Ape three-wheeler. The declared performance figures, 70 km/h and a range of 150 km, appeared at least optimistic.
For the electric version, a 2 kW motor was adopted. The transmission remained the same, but the contacts allowed the battery elements to be connected in both series and parallel, optimizing the use of stored energy and distributing it more evenly.
Additional components were introduced, such as a clutch (also electric), which made driving more similar to that of conventional cars and helped preserve the selector-switch contacts.
A system for recovering energy during deceleration—recharging the batteries, much like in modern electric and hybrid vehicles—was also tested, but the project was abandoned due to costs and, above all, the difficulty of sourcing the necessary components. In the 1960s, electronics as we know it today was still in its infancy.
Work was also carried out on the transmission to make driving even smoother. Narciso Cristiani contacted CETAS, a company from nearby Empoli that was, at the time, one of the most advanced in the emerging field of electronic technology.
CETAS, led by Italiano Fraccari, assigned the project to engineer Enrico Micheletti, who spent a couple of years working at the Poggio Adorno workshop. Micheletti designed a pulse-width modulation speed controller that allowed motor power to be regulated not in abrupt steps by changing the supply voltage, but continuously by modulating the width—i.e., the duration—of a series of pulses sent to the motor. This too was an extremely modern concept for the late 1960s.
