The future of urban motoring?

(Pocket-lint) – The Citroën Ami began life as an city mobility idea, unveiled in 2019 because the Ami One.

Like many such ideas, we thought it seemed cute on the time and we have been barely stunned that in 2020, Citroën introduced it was really pushing the challenge ahead, that it was coming to market.

Bounce ahead to 2022 and we’re sat behind the wheel of the Citroën Ami, scooting across the streets of London because it will get a full UK launch.

It is not really a automobile

Let’s begin with an important level: the Citroën Ami is not really a automobile. Positive, it is received 4 wheels, a few doorways and a few seats inside. It appears like a automobile, it drives (nearly) like a automobile, and most of the people will suppose it’s a automobile – besides the authorities.

The Ami is definitely classed as a quadricycle. This comes right down to its low weight, restricted energy and pace – and it implies that the driving licence necessities are completely different to vehicles too (there could also be regional variations right here).

Within the UK you possibly can drive it on an AM licence, which is principally a moped licence and it is not authorized to drive on motorways.

It is price saying that in the event you’re excited about venturing out within the Citroën Ami, it is best completed with loads of driving expertise, since you’re principally driving a steel body coated in plastic panels, so there’s little safety if you end up in a compromising place.

Compact, however fundamental design

There are many phrases you could possibly use to explain the Ami: cute, compact, … um … futuristic? Okay, there are usually not that many phrases you will wish to use, so we’ll persist with compact. Measuring 2.41m lengthy, 1.39m extensive and 1.52m excessive, it solely fills half a parking house, a pure benefit relating to stopping in city environments.

However as we stated, it is principally a steel body coated with plastic panels and a number of the futuristic allure of the unique Ami One (pictured beneath) has been misplaced because it strikes over to this utilitarian launch automobile.

Except for feeling such as you’re sitting in a plastic field in the course of the street, there are some cute design parts. The inserts into the sprint space for storage are fairly funky, whereas the incorporation of a telephone mount means you possibly can simply dock your system and use it for all of your leisure and navigation.

There isn’t any display screen on this automobile – other than the fundamental show above the steering wheel – so it truly is a case of bringing your personal system to the occasion. There is a USB socket to energy it, nonetheless.

There are additionally no in-built audio system, however the inside has been designed to accommodate the UE Boom 3, with a pleasant customized design speaker that you simply slip right into a rubber ring to wedge it in place within the sprint. The Growth 3 is a superb speaker, so it is fairly an amusing answer and while you arrive at your vacation spot you possibly can take your Bluetooth speaker with you.

You do not get correct winding home windows, as an alternative they raise open. There’s some old-school 2CV allure to this answer, however because the door is a single panel fairly than being the type of sandwich development you’d get on an everyday automobile, there can be nowhere to wind a window into anyway.

Equally, there is no boot/trunk and no glovebox, simply a few nets on the doorways and one by your ft, so you possibly can stuff a backpack into the passenger footwell. At a push, you would possibly have the ability to get a small bag behind the seats, nevertheless it’s actually about transferring folks from A to B with minimal baggage.

From the outside, there is a sure allure and having pushed some superb vehicles through the years, we have by no means seen something get as a lot consideration because the Citroën Ami. Whether or not that is as a result of it is a imaginative and prescient of the longer term, or out of sympathy, we do not fairly know.

However, pulling into the doorway of The Savoy Lodge in London, the doorman did not usher us away, as an alternative he came to visit laughing and needed to know all in regards to the automobile.

It’s, just like the Renault Twizy, one thing that turns heads for a mess of causes.

Is the Citroën Ami snug?

That is a query. We spent a few hours driving round London within the Ami and we won’t say we would wish to spend for much longer in there. There isn’t any sound deadening, there’s little or no by the best way of suspension, and the seats are solely a slight evolution past onerous plastic.

Merely put, there’s little in the best way of creature comforts – however the purpose is not to set you off on an extended journey, it is to maneuver you from A to B with minimal influence on the world round you. It may need a unfavorable influence in your posterior in the event you’re sat in it for something longer than an hour, nonetheless.

The structure of the seats can also be just a little odd. As a result of this can be a compact automobile, you do not fairly sit side-by-side. The passenger is barely behind the motive force, to get the seats nearer collectively with out knocking shoulders. If you’re driving, you do not really feel this, however because the passenger, it feels such as you’re sitting actually near the motive force, respiration down their neck.

Nonetheless, there’s extra space than in a Twizy and extra sensible enchantment than being a pillion passenger – however much less of a thrill.

Hitting a few of London’s cobbled streets actually confirmed off how restricted the suspension is on the Ami, because it shakes and rattles till you come to flat roads once more. So this is not one thing you will be hopping over speedbumps and we would hate to suppose what would possibly occur in the event you hit a critical pothole. Happily, it is sufficiently small you could most likely drive round most of them with out impeding oncoming visitors.

It is actually this inside expertise the place the Citroën Ami makes much less sense. It prices from £7,695 within the UK, and you could possibly get a second-hand Toyota Aygo for a lot much less – with all of the comforts you may want.

What’s it prefer to drive? What is the vary and pace?

As a quadricycle there are limits to the ability and pace obtainable. The important thing determine right here is that the Citroën Ami will solely do 28mph. Primarily if take it wherever apart from an city centre, you will most likely battle to drive on the authorized pace restrict and you may most likely face the identical abuse that mobility scooter drivers would when on the street.

There is a 6kW motor within the Ami and there is no actual urgency to stand up to tempo. In contrast to electric cars, there is not the ability to ship a lot of instantaneous torque to get you off the road at any pace. Certainly, we would say that it is just a little underpowered to noticeably drive in visitors since you’d be restricted in any scenario the place you needed to shortly change lanes or overtake.

We discovered this true when attempting to cross lanes in London to get to a selected junction. If you cannot transfer shortly, you will typically discover you have been undercut by one other driver. The Ami simply would not have the get-up-and-go. It takes 10 seconds to do 0-28mph.

As an alternative, the true benefit you’ve gotten is the compact dimension – you will squeeze by way of gaps others will not and there is a 7.2-metre turning circle, so that you would possibly have the ability to pull a U-turn on some roads with out having to resort to a three-point flip.

The official vary is 46.6 miles and there is a 5.5kWh battery. A Kind 2 plug is hidden within the door body, so you possibly can stretch out the cable to cost it, which takes about 3 hours.

Clearly, with that type of vary you are restricted in what the Ami will sort out – however journeys to the grocery store, driving into city to have your hair completed, or simply that brief commute, are all inside vary.

The good factor is that there is loads of visibility across the automobile. The wing mirrors are type of fundamental and there is no rearview mirror in any respect. The explanation there is no rearview mirror is that you do not legally want one – and it could be that since you’re so removed from the windscreen you simply find yourself your personal reflection.

Onto a number of the extra technical factors, there are three buttons – D, N, R – as you’d discover in any electrical automobile, however these are down together with the seat fairly than on the sprint, which appears just a little odd. Nonetheless, begin the automobile and poke the button and off you go.

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Driving then is like any other electric car, although there’s no regeneration when you lift off – instead it will just coast to a halt. There’s also nothing to hold you on hills, so if you lift off the brake, you’ll start to roll back, which really does bring back old-school vibes and you’ll have to be fast with your feet or go back to using the handbrake when you stop on a hill to stay out of trouble.

Otherwise we found the steering positive enough, although it’s not powered, so if you’re not moving, it takes a little more grunt to move the wheels.

So what’s the Citroën Ami actually for?

The Citroën Ami was never designed to be launched in the UK, so Citroën is really just having a bit of fun – because it sold out really quickly when it launched in France. That’s because it’s an affordable electric vehicle, and the long-term running costs are going to be insignificant.

Sure, you can buy a second-hand car cheaper and get a lot more for your money, but when it comes to running costs, the Ami is going to win – not to mention the environmental appeal of having zero emissions and needing little space to park it at home.

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Is it fun to drive? Well yes, we enjoyed driving it, but much of that comes down to novelty. Would we drive it on a short trip to the supermarket to do some shopping? Yes, it seems ideal for that sort of trip where comforts don’t really matter – it’s certainly a much greener option than firing up your diesel SUV because you want to go and buy some eggs.

But Citroën also sees this as a vehicle for last-mile delivery. There’s even a version – Ami Cargo – that foregoes the passenger seat for stowage space instead, so it could be used to deliver parcels or any other goods over a small delivery area.

It’s also worth mentioning that although it costs nearly £8,000, some of the finance options might make more sense. You can get it for around £85 a month with a £770 deposit – the sort of deal that might be attractive if you want to trade in your old car and move to something greener instead. It almost makes sense.

To recap

The Citroën Ami is cute on one hand, but limited on the other. It’s a solution to moving people around an urban environment and there’s some appeal in its electric propulsion and compact size. But there’s still quite a cost to it and there’s a limit to the comforts it offers. It may be a solution for some, but only if you have a narrow set of demands.

Writing by Chris Hall.