Also, aren't energy drink cans larger than coke cans? I haven't had a can in front of me for years, so using cm (or inches) would have been better.
It just means it's a standard european small-but-tall style can. There are 2shapes of 330ml cans, the shorter/stubbier one and the taller narrower one which was initially most common in energy drinks but is now used for soda cans too. Beer still uses the shorter/stubbier 330ml.
I believe they are around 14.5 cm high. Diameter around 6cm.
The 250 ml comes in a 14 cm height box, so I guess the 13 cm were a correct guess?
A 330 ml "Sleek Can", which I guess is the same one as a Red Bull can, has a height of 146 mm.
It's just as valid as using bananas for scale, but the issue with the article is that that it doesn't even bother to mention the actual dimensions in cm or inches, yet it uses "tiny" in the title to describe the engine.