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

[platinumsage]

Status. Luxury. 'Safety' for your precious little one on the short drive to school and back. Etc etc.

Or because you don't want to keep a small city car and another bigger car for trips to the seaside etc.

 

[WouldBe]

Or because you don't want to keep a small city car and another bigger car for trips to the seaside etc.

You don't need a 4x4 for a trip to the seaside it's easily done in a moggy minor.

 

[editor]

Or because you don't want to keep a small city car and another bigger car for trips to the seaside etc.

Wait. You're actually justifying people owning huge SUVs to drive their offspring a short distance to school because they may occasionally want to take a trip to the seaside? Remind me why anyone would need a huge 4 wheel drive SUV for a family trip to the countryside.

 

[platinumsage]

Wait. You're actually justifying people owning huge SUVs to drive their offspring a short distance to school because they may occasionally want to take a trip to the seaside? Remind me why anyone would need a huge 4 wheel drive SUV for a family trip to the countryside.

Surfboards, yachting gear, three kids, dog etc.. Perfectly reasonable not to want to attempt such trips in a Toyota Aygo or that plastic thing in the first post.

 

[gentlegreen]

Ironically, a "sans permis" would probably work very well for me were I ever to manage to move to the part of Brittany I had in mind - rarely getting off B road - though there is the "maillot jaune" culture there with plenty of aspersions cast towards slow vehicles.
And by the same token, perhaps also in the Gower with the odd trip into town for shopping outside of the rush hour.

 

[editor]

Surfboards, yachting gear, three kids, dog etc.. Perfectly reasonable not to want to attempt such trips in a Toyota Aygo or that plastic thing in the first post.

I love the way you just keep on inventing these fictional families with extra-niche, heavy duty needs, who simply have to carry around vast amounts of equipment on every trip.

But remind me why a vehicle has to be huge, come with 4 wheel drive and have off road capabilities for a family seaside trip?

Sure makes you wonder how ordinary families managed to make such trips in the past without these kind of monstrosities.

 

[Teaboy]

These citroens are basically just a better looking version of those little Indian Reva cars that were moderately popular in certain parts of London several years back. I think there is a market for these sort of things in the UK but it is limited. I can see how they would have a bigger market in France. Not sure about 14 year olds being to drive them mind.

 

[Teaboy]

Crikey the new defender is a fugly car.

 

[gentlegreen]

It's sufficiently shocking what they did to the "mini" ....

 

[platinumsage]

I love the way you just keep on inventing these fictional families with extra-niche, heavy duty needs, who simply have to carry around vast amounts of equipment on every trip.

But remind me why a vehicle has to be huge, come with 4 wheel drive and have off road capabilities for a family seaside trip?

Sure makes you wonder how ordinary families managed to make such trips in the past without these kind of monstrosities.

A Morris 1100 was more than 50% longer than the Citroen Ami, so it's no surprise that it might have been suitable for longer trips with more people and luggage.

The notion that city cars are suitable for family use on long trips is just weird.

 

[Roadkill]

I’m all for small, electric cars. But this one is well ugly. I’d sooner drive a Smart EQ fortwo or VW e-UP or something a little less conspicuously crap looking.

The Renault Twizy is quite a funky looking little thing:

If I wanted a car for getting around town, though (which I don't: I don't agree with driving in cities unless it's absolutely necessary), and I had somewhere out of the rain to keep it, I'd still go out and buy the best city car ever made:

 

[editor]

A Morris 1100 was more than 50% longer than the Citroen Ami, so it's no surprise that it might have been suitable for longer trips with more people and luggage.

The notion that city cars are suitable for family use on long trips is just weird.

Absolutely no one has suggested that the Ami would be 'suitable for longer trips with more people and luggage.'

 

[skyscraper101]

The Renault Twizy is quite a funky looking little thing:

It looks ridiculous.

 

[Roadkill]

It looks ridiculous.

Oh aye, but if you're going to make something like that why not make it look ridiculous?!

 

[platinumsage]

Absolutely no one has suggested that the Ami would be 'suitable for longer trips with more people and luggage.'

I'm struggling to understand what it would be suitable for, other than trips that would normally be made by smaller, cheaper, less polluting vehicles such as bikes, e-bikes and electric mopeds, or by walking or bus.

It's not going to replace bigger cars.

 

[dessiato]

There's a lot of microcars which follow the same basic idea, and which be driven without a full car licence. The only in which this is new is that it is electric. Most of them seem to originate in France but are often seen here in Spain, a nd in Portugal.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Good to see this is going differently to all the other threads about cars

 

[Teaboy]

I'm struggling to understand what it would be suitable for, other than trips that would normally be made by smaller, cheaper, less polluting vehicles such as bikes, e-bikes and electric mopeds, or by walking or bus.

It's not going to replace bigger cars.

I think there will be a market albeit a small one and primarily in London. There are people who don't really leave London much and don't do long drives anyway so will just get a train. A car like this to just pootle around the city will work for them,

 

[gentlegreen]

The Renault Twizy is quite a funky looking little thing:



If I wanted a car for getting around town, though (which I don't: I don't agree with driving in cities unless it's absolutely necessary), and I had somewhere out of the rain to keep it, I'd still go out and buy the best city car ever made:

I would still go for the 2CV - actually an electric one with some weight-saving would be cool.
I'm fairly sure I once carried four 2x8s of chipboard sticking out of the roof - it bottomed the suspension though... I certainly once transported a door that way ...

 

[Aladdin]

I like the little AMI.
I would happily use that.
And as long as I never live in a high rise I should be able to plug it into a wall socket in the sitting room.

 

[Roadkill]

I think there will be a market albeit a small one and primarily in London. There are people who don't really leave London much and don't do long drives anyway so will just get a train. A car like this to just pootle around the city will work for them,

Yes, this. Not only London, but certainly limited to the largest cities. One of the things I remember noticing when I moved to London in 2006 was that G-Wizes weren't just something that Top Gear made jokes about, but something quite a few people actually drove. You never saw them round here, presumably because a lot of car use involved driving in from outlying towns and that generation of electric vehicles just weren't up to it.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Seems nice enough but it's obviously very niche, only useful for single people or couples who live in towns or cities but don't go anywhere else. And who are fine with driving a little box really slowly on the road.

 

[Roadkill]

I would still go for the 2CV - actually an electric one with some weight-saving would be cool.
I'm fairly sure I once carried four 2x8s of chipboard sticking out of the roof - it bottomed the suspension though... I certainly once transported a door that way ...

Oh no, you couldn't mutilate a 2CV by sticking an electric motor in it. Without that cacophonous flat-twin and weird push-pull gearbox it wouldn't be a 2CV any more!

 

[gentlegreen]

Oh no, you couldn't mutilate a 2CV by sticking an electric motor in it. Without that cacophonous flat-twin and weird push-pull gearbox it wouldn't be a 2CV any more!

And the starting handle - I loved that - it was handy when the starter motor burnt out (I soldered new brushes into that with a plumber's iron.)

 

[Sasaferrato]

The problem with very limited power is that it removes one of your safety options. Sometimes you brake to avoid danger, sometimes you drop two gears and floor it.

 

[BoxRoom]

I wouldn't mind one at all. Would be a great little London runabout. I'm still wanting a bike, which may be more in my means at some point, but I'd feel a little safer in one of these mobile cubes I think.

There's no reason why I'd have to get rid of my trusty 4x4 though! I need that to take family and extensive equipment etc when I rough it with the family down West Wittering.

 

[Roadkill]

And the starting handle - I loved that - it was handy when the starter motor burnt out (I soldered new brushes into that with a plumber's iron.)

I'd forgotten they had a starting handle!

 

[Crispy]

I took a family of four, plus bikes, to the IoW this summer, in a Micra with a roof pod and rear rack. No 4x4 required.

 

[Crispy]

The problem with very limited power is that it removes one of your safety options. Sometimes you break to avoid danger, sometimes you drop two gears and floor it.

I cannot think of a single time I've had to do this, and never heard a reasonable scenario for "speeding up to get out of danger"

 

[gentlegreen]

I cannot think of a single time I've had to do this, and never heard a reasonable scenario for "speeding up to get out of danger"

I think perhaps it helps to have done a lot of cycling.
Even when I rode large motorcycles, I never saw it as an option.