Someone send notice to The Villages: The Fiat Topolino has officially earned street-legal status in the United States. There’s one big caveat to that legality, though, which is that the tiny Topolino is designated as a low-speed vehicle (a.k.a. an LSV). Under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s rules, LSVs are limited to a top speed of between 20 and 25 mph and a gross vehicle weight rating below 3000 pounds.
Given that the Topolino’s 5-kWh battery and 8-horsepower motor already cap its max velocity at just 25 mph, there’s no surprise that it earned the LSV designation. The drawback of being branded an LSV is that you can’t drive it on roads with a posted speed limit of more than 35 mph, but you can cross over roads with a higher limit at intersections.
Extracted and lightly reformatted for readability. · Source: pt