When saw this today I thought the owner was just having a joke with the green EV numberplate tag that immediately caught my eye.
But then I saw the 'Electric' decal on the side I thought it might still be a joke related to that. After all it was quite common for (especially French) cars in the 90s to have quirky trim levels; Wave/Surf/Excite/Elation/etc https://autoshite.com/topic/54842-ridiculous-trim-designations/). Even Fiat had a Fiat 500 'Diesel', which only came in Petrol.
But then on closer look, I couldn't see an exhaust and there was a awkwardly placed flap on the front wing, so I thought it was a passion project type EV conversion. The 106 chassis is really fun little go kart after all. And if someone had the money and the will, why not.
I figured that there might be some information about it online if that was the case. Certainly someone with that dedication would have to have a deep passion, and they might have documented or made a forum post about it.
Nah, it's actually a factory option. PSA apparently decided to offer a battery EV all the way back in 1996. https://www.car.info/en-se/peugeot/106/106-3-door-eletric-11153757/specs
I mean, with 15hp you'll be struggling to even worry the skin on your rice pudding.
Absolutely love seeing things like this.
I doubt it was for anything to do with compliance. More that it was just PSA trying something out. PSA Group marques are fairly well known for doing unusual things, even if it isn't financially viable.
From the wiki:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_106
To me that reads like the French govt thought that a fleet of small EVs would be useful for their staff to use for short metropolitan/LA travel thinking that it would reduce fuel/servicing costs or something. For that, it's specs are totally adequate.
Seems that they outsourced the manufacturering to Heuliez who are a coachbuilder who probably sourced some kind of milk float drive train and stuck in the body and chassis delivered to them by Peugeot.
Selling it on a wider market beyond the French govt was likely a 'well, we've gone through this effort, and we're building them anyway, might as well sell them to the public and see what happens'.
Obviously, like everyone else who tried it around the same time, they realised that it was just too soon to try tech wise. And the French govt also realised that there was little benefit to overcome the list of negatives. From things I read in trying to find out more about them, at least some are being kept on the road by replacing the batteries with LiOn and more modern e-motors. One example had a BMW i3 motor retrofitted.
This particular example was in the middle of the Angus countryside, with two toddler sized car seats on the back bench, so I suspect that it wasn't entirely as it was as it left the factory in 1998 and likely had a bit more power at its disposal.