Battery Manufacturing Association (BMA) was a British company located in Hove

Hove

Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...

. In 1952 the company entered the microcar

Microcar

A microcar is the smallest automobile classification usually applied to standard small car . Such small cars were generally referred to as cyclecars until the 1940s. More recent models are also called bubblecars due to their egg-shaped appearance.-Definition:The definition of a microcar has varied...

 arena with the B.M.A. Hazelcar. It was styled as a roadster

Roadster

A roadster is a two-seat open car with emphasis on sporty handling and without a fixed roof or side weather protection. Strictly speaking a roadster with wind-up windows is a convertible but as true roadsters are no longer made the distinction is now irrelevant...

 with aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

 bodywork. It was powered by a 1.5 hp electric engine fed by nine six-volt batteries giving it a top speed of 20 mph (32 km/h) and a range of up to 60 miles (97 km). The price of £535 meant that few were sold. Production ended in 1954.
They made approx 25 vehicles which included some electric vans.

Hazelcar,The Original Mini

In 1949 two brothers, Eric and Roy Hazeldine, had set up a garage business in Telscombe Cliffs and Rottingdean Sussex, where they designed and built the little Hazelcar. The initial idea was to design a car that would do 50 mph (80 km/h) and 50 miles to the gallon (5.6 L/100 km). With its transverse four cylinder engine with an end on gearbox (although mounted in the rear) and little wheels, it was the forerunner of the Mini

Mini

The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...

. A petrol version of this type is currently on show in the Bentley Motor Museum in Sussex. They then joined forces with BMA.