Enjoy the Silence

Nissan hopes its tie-up with a quadricycle maker will help attract younger buyers. SAM PHILLIPS finds out more

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The newly refurbished Santiago Bernabéu stadium located in the northern part of Madrid is breathtaking. The fabled football ground recently underwent a transformation costing £1.5 billion, and it now sports a retractable roof and striking metal facade. It's amazingly grand, yet as I cruise past the home of Los Blancos, it's not the stadium that is turning heads - it's the tiny electric quadricycle I'm driving.

The Silence S04 has quietly been making a name for itself in Europe, having been sold in select markets for more than a year, but it will soon be coming to the UK with help from Nissan. The Japanese car maker partnered Silence last year and has been selling the S04 Nanocar through its dealer network in France, Germany and Italy.

Founded in 2014 by former motorcycle racer Carlos Sotelo, Silence claims to be the biggest specialist EV manufacturer on the continent and is best known for its range of electric scooters. With the exclusive distribution rights to the S04 (available in L6 and L7 forms), the model lineup – which includes a new entry-level option and a cargo version – will arrive on UK roads early next year. But why does automotive giant Nissan, which sells more than three million cars globally each year, want to get involved with quadricycles?