Electric cars have come a long way in recent years. We have Tesla to thank for much of that, along with Nissan, and Toyota of course with their electrification of combustion engines.

However not so long ago electric cars were, frankly, absolutely terrible. The Reva G-Wiz. The Think City. Whatever the hell this is supposed to be. And this, the CityEl / Ellert.

Launched in 1987 the CityEl has a top speed of around 35mph and a range of 30-50 miles from its set of horrible lead-acid batteries and single electric motor. Yup, we said ‘has’ rather than ‘had’, because this automotive embarrassment is still being made. To put that into context purchasing one new today would be like buying a ZX Spectrum computer, an Atari games console, or one of those mobile phones that you had to carry around in a briefcase.

Brickshelf’s gtahelper has made the slightly odd choice to reproduce the CityEl / Ellert in Lego, but he has done a rather excellent job, and has even included a wonderfully ’80s driver to stand alongside it. A full gallery is available to view via the link above, where you can also find a link to instructions should you share gtahelper’s penchant for unfortunate vehicles.