Citroën Ami - a tiny, electric 'polypropylene cube on wheels' for urban driving

[editor]

Now, I'd rather have no cars at all, but if we've got to have them, then I'd prefer these tiny little thid on the city streets. Interestingly, in France kids as young as 14 can legally drive them.

It can be recharged from a standard home socket in three hours and, in its basic grey-and-orange edition, costs €6,000 (£5,550) to buy outright, or, with €100 down, €78 a month – roughly what most Parisians pay for an all-zone metro and suburban rail pass.

Driving it is a doddle. You sit beneath a panoramic roof in the spacious interior, turn the key, select D for drive from the three buttons to the left of your seat, release the handbrake and depress the accelerator pedal – and off you go, with a surprising kick.

In front of you is a monochrome display from the dark ages showing speed, battery level and kilometres remaining before the next charge. There is no boot, but plenty of neat storage nets for small items and room for shopping in front of the passenger seat.

The Ami hits 45km/h pretty quickly and can go no faster, but in habitually gridlocked Paris – where speed limits vary from 20km/h to a theoretical 50km/h – that is neither necessary nor, most of the time, even possible (the Ami is not allowed on expressways). The brakes are reassuringly efficient, and a standard parking bay fits two Amis.

Ami, the tiny cube on wheels that French 14-year-olds can drive

Citroën’s ‘urban mobility object’ is classed as a light quadricyle and can be driven without a full licence

www.theguardian.com

 

[editor]

Videos





This one's annoying:

 

[platinumsage]

Being restricted to 30mph makes it pretty useless for city dwellers, it would be highly dangerous on the north circular for example. Seems like it’s more a substitute for cycling/walking/scooters rather than for actual cars.

 

[BristolEcho]

Being restricted to 30mph makes it pretty useless for city dwellers, it would be highly dangerous on the north circular for example. Seems like it’s more a substitute for cycling/walking/scooters rather than for actual cars.

Yeah it's basically similar to a 50cc scooter, but more waterproof and accessible.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Being restricted to 30mph makes it pretty useless for city dwellers, it would be highly dangerous on the north circular for example. Seems like it’s more a substitute for cycling/walking/scooters rather than for actual cars.

That’s an argument for reducing the speed limit on the North Circular, not against this car. 30mph is more than enough for cities.

 

[platinumsage]

That’s an argument for reducing the speed limit on the North Circular, not against this car.

Maybe when the speed limit on the north circular and all other urban dual carriageways and motorways is reduced to 30mph, this will be a viable alternative to larger cars. Until then it obviously isn’t.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Maybe when the speed limit on the north circular and all other urban dual carriageways and motorways is reduced to 30mph, this will be a viable alternative to larger cars. Until then it obviously isn’t.

Motorways have nothing to do with this car. It’s not allowed on them.

Almost no urban/city road should have a higher limit than 30. Most should be 20.

 

[Cid]

Rush hour the speed on the north circular is about 10mph anyway.

 

[editor]

Being restricted to 30mph makes it pretty useless for city dwellers

Why? Most cities have a max speed of 20mph and the average speed in central London is below that anyway. It's time to rethink the whole concept of how fast cars should be allowed to travel around urban areas,

 

[platinumsage]

Why? Most cities have a max speed of 20mph and the average speed n central London is below that.

Take the Coventry ring road for example. As this car is incapable of traveling on it, it will instead have to ratrun through residential streets. It's not capable of reasonable city car journeys and will instead add to motorised traffic on quieter roads.

 

[Cid]

Canyon (bike company) have also been working on an enclosed ebike.

 

[platinumsage]

Try Peterborough or Milton Keynes etc, plenty of dual carriageway roads above 30mph that are part of direct routes from one part of town to another. Precisely to avoid cars going via residential areas, which this thing will have to do. Like a scooter but wider and heavier.

 

[editor]

Canyon (bike company) have also been working on an enclosed ebike.

Interesting. And it comes with a 'cockpit'!

 

[Cid]

There’s a video somewhere of canyon reps plugging that vehicle, throughout they just throw shade on how shit uk transport infrastructure is. ‘It might not work in the uk, but in Europe which has proper bike lanes and better zoning it should work’.

 

[editor]

Try Peterborough or Milton Keynes, plenty of dual carriageway roads above 30mph that are part of direct routes from one part of town to another. Precisely to avoid cars going via residential areas.

Both cities have plenty of areas with 20mph zones - with more likely on the way - and so fucking what if you have to go a bit slower?

New speed limits in Peterborough: the full list

Peterborough City Council has put a number of new speed limits in place.

www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk

Council introduces 20mph speed limits on new estate roads

Milton Keynes Council will on Tuesday 20th November agree a radical change in approach to estate roads. All new estate roads will have 20 mph speed limits.

www.mkfm.com

And here's why we need more:

One of the first studies of pedestrian injury and car impact speed found that at 20mph there was a 2.5% chance of being fatally injured, compared to a 20% chance at 30mph, although this study is now regarded as having overestimated the risks. A recent review identified the studies which had produced the most reliable modern estimates4 . The results from one of these studies is presented in figure 1, which shows a fatality risk of 1.5% at 20 mph versus 8% at 30 mph

https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/drivers/20-mph-zone-factsheet.pdf

 

[hash tag]

In terms of safety and capability, The new Ami reminds me of the old "invalid carriages that were withdrawn many years ago. Proper Ami's are classics.

 

[platinumsage]

Both cities have plenty of areas with 20mph zones - with more likely on the way - and so fucking what if you have to go a bit slower?

New speed limits in Peterborough: the full list

Peterborough City Council has put a number of new speed limits in place.

www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk

Council introduces 20mph speed limits on new estate roads

Milton Keynes Council will on Tuesday 20th November agree a radical change in approach to estate roads. All new estate roads will have 20 mph speed limits.

www.mkfm.com

.

These zones are residential areas, bordered by normal roads. They are meant to discourage rat running, so cars stick to the dual carriageways and ring roads etc.. These 30mph cars will have to find alternate routes on slow roads past schools etc, totally defeating the purpose.

 

[Roadkill]

This 'Ami' thing just looks like a G-Wiz for the 2020s, and about as appealing.

 

[Idaho]

In terms of safety and capability, The new Ami reminds me of the old "invalid carriages that were withdrawn many years ago.
View attachment 229938

Reminds you? That makes no sense.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Being restricted to 30mph makes it pretty useless for city dwellers, it would be highly dangerous on the north circular for example. Seems like it’s more a substitute for cycling/walking/scooters rather than for actual cars.

You could have some serious fun if you swapped out the motor for something a lot more powerful.

 

[platinumsage]

Normal route:



Max 30mph route:

 

[chilango]

There were petrol versions of this kinda thing in Milan a few years back. Essentially mopeds that looked like cars that 14 year olds could drive.

 

[chilango]

I'd be delighted with one of those Amis if they were affordable.

 

[fishfinger]

You could have some serious fun if you swapped out the motor for something a lot more powerful.

Like a rubber band?

 

[Crispy]

Normal route:

View attachment 229940

Max 30mph route:

View attachment 229942

Proof of the catastrophic damage wrought on our cities by the motorcar.
100s of years hence it will be seen as a horrible period in the history of cities.
Same as we wonder how miserable it was to live in a city with no organised sewage system.

 

[xenon]

Oh nos please don't change anything about motoring,

Don't close roads to cars, don't promote electric cars, smaller cars, fewer cars, less car ownership, no no. It's the natural order of things. Increasing gridlock, polution, time wasted, space wasted. If anything questions this paradign it't must be crushed in the cradle. We must defend our rights to choke on city pollution, get fatter, the inalienable right to impinge on public space with obstruction and noise.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Like a rubber band?

I was thinking more along the lines of a Hayabusa turbo.

 

[souljacker]

Normal route:

View attachment 229940

Max 30mph route:

View attachment 229942

You don't HAVE to drive the speed limit you know. You are allowed on a big road with a little car.

 

[Roadkill]

Like a rubber band?

 

[Ax^]

if you buy one and don't paint it the colour scheme of the weighted companion cube from portal

it would be as waste