Citroen Ami Electric Vehicle.
New mobility efforts need new vehicle ideas, and for that, the Citroen Ami is set to deliver.
Designed for European cities, the all-electric Ami is a tiny, electric vehicle that people as young as 14 can drive (in France, anyway, for the rest of Europe it’s mostly 16) without a driver’s license or even that much money in the bank. Citroen says you can rent an Ami for the long-term starting at just €19.99 ($21.90 U.S.) a month.
That’s an incredibly low price, but the two-seat Ami is designed to make you rethink what it means to have urban transportation. Also, there are some caveats. For one thing, the “long-term” part of the deal is that you have to sign up to keep your Ami for 48 months, and there’s a down payment of 2,644 euros ($2,900) required (these are all details for using an Ami in France). All in, that’ll come to 3,603 euros ($3,959). If you want to go the car-sharing route using the Free2Move program, then it will cost you 26 eurocents (29 U.S. cents) a minute on top of a monthly subscription of 9.90 euros ($10.90). To buy an Ami outright will cost you 6,000 euros ($6,592, and again, in France, with VAT and a 900 euro [$989] environmental bonus included).
Citroen Ami in Grey.
As for the Ami itself, it’s got a tiny battery and turning radius to go along with its small price. The 2.41-meter long EV is propelled up to 45 kmh (28 mph) by a 6-kW motor and powered by a 5.5-kWh battery pack. That means it can go for a max of 70 kilometers (43 miles) and recharge in just three hours from a standard, European outlet (see picture above). The small size means it has a turning diameter of just 7.2 meters (23.6 feet).
With those numbers, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the Ami isn’t technically a car, but a “light quadricycle.” That doesn’t mean you can’t trick out your Ami at all. Citroen will offer customized wheel covers, body and roof stickers and even “capsules on the sides like Airbump inserts.”
Citroen introduced the Ami One Concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2019 and because people expressed a healthy interest in this vehicle, the company went ahead with plans to bring it to life. The car will be available to customers in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Germany this year, with the first deliveries scheduled for June in France. The car-sharing version of the Ami will be available starting in Paris this spring.
