The newest electric vehicle to roll out cannnot be plugged in, but it does have one impressive credential: It’s the smallest in the world.

Unlike nanocars of the past that were aided by scanning microscopes, light, or heated surfaces, this molecular vehicle uses electrons to move forward.

“This is the first example where you really have a motor function,” said Ben Feringa, an organic chemistry professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who led the nano-vehicle’s creation. “You can put in energy so you have a propulsion mechanism like in a real motor in a car.”

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