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The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

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Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#101

Post by masklinn »

natch wrote: post #50

Low range means fewer batteries cells (or pouches) means less parallelization means slower charge speeds. However this is probably not a huge issue since the use case for a short range car like this is charge at home at night, and use it only around town.

> it takes three hours to charge using a conventional three-pin domestic plug and socket.

Granted that's with glorious european 230V, but there you go. You can literally go out, come back, charge it, then go back out again.

The battery is 5.5kWh. The first gen leaf had an entry-level battery of 24kWh, the second gen starts at 40. It's more comparable to a phev battery (the first-gen Prius had 4.4kWh, the current third gen uses a 13.6kWh battery).

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#102

Post by scajanus »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #57
bambax wrote: post #26

> the £7,695 tiny electric car that has no boot, a 28mph top speed and range of just 46 miles I live in Paris and do everything with an e-bike that also has no boot, no passenger seat, a top speed of ~20mph, a range of ~30 miles... but cost me around €1,200 (since I built it myself). It now has over 7,500 miles. In day trafic it's probably much faster than the Ami, and it can also be put on a train. Couldn't be happi…

If it’s raining/snowing, or too hot, or too cold, I’d much rather be in an small enclosed car than exposed to the elements on a bike. The Ami has a primitive heater but no air conditioning, but there’s no reason that these limitations are inherent to a vehicle of this size. I imagine an Ami-sized car with creature comforts of a regular vehicle would sell extremely well in cities. Biking is great when the weather is a…

For short distances, getting my car out from under fresh snow is more work than taking the bike. Even when it's just a small layer of light snow that needs to be dusted off.

Also if I'm going to spend any time outside, I need to spend equal amount of time picking my clothes and dressing for the weather regardless of whether I pick the car or the bike.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#104

Post by hadrien01 »

rwmj wrote: post #3

If this was half the price, say £3,500, I'd probably get one. The price seems wildly out of line with what you get. Also I wonder about modding - larger battery, a roof rack and a bright orange paint job to compensate for lack of safety features.

In France it’s 7800€, but with government subsidies it goes down to 6900€.

There are options (including the orange colour you want!), but the only worthwhile one is the Cargo variant (in place of the second seat) for 8200€/7300€. No battery upgrade.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#105

Post by rjsw »

svnpenn wrote: post #86

> 28mph top speed please no one buy this. I purchased a vehicle similar to this years ago, and while fun, the top speed was ALWAYS an issue. Even on surface streets, its too slow, so you end up essentially redlining for the entire trip, and even then its too slow. Unless this is purely as second "toy vehicle" for you, don't buy this. Get something that can go at least 40.

All the roads between me and the nearest big supermarket have a speed limit of 20mph.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#106

Post by gus_massa »

HNDV wrote: post #12
zac23or wrote: post #5

Its ugly! A key to Tesla's success is that its cars look like cars, not abominations. Many electric car makers seem to hate cars.

It's ugly because it was made to be as cheap as possible. For example, the "passenger" side door is the same door as the driver side, so the driver's door opens like a suicide door, while the passenger one opens like a conventional door. All elements of the car were made to be as perfectly symmetrical as possible and interchangeable. The so-called abomination has a hope of driving poorer people from A to B, while you…

> so the driver's door opens like a suicide door, while the passenger one opens like a conventional door.

Is it really more dangerous than a normal door? Someone is going to use it only when the car is parked anyway.

(I'd used the oposite design. A normal door for the driver that is always present and when parked in the street opens the door into transit, and a weird door for the passenger that opens the door into the sidewalk. Am I missing something?)

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#107

Post by scajanus »

jack_pp wrote: post #90
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it’s raining/snowing, or too hot, or too cold, I’d much rather be in an small enclosed car than exposed to the elements on a bike. Yes and no. I have a three wheeler cargo bike I use for most of my commuting or city riding and very rarely do I opt for my car, particularly when the weather is bad. The main reason is that since where I live I basically cannot find parking and when the weather is bad, the roads are…

I don't even have a driving licence, mostly go by subway / bus or scooter and right now if I go over 20kph on a scooter my face freezes, do you use a bike helmet (full face shield) when it's cold outside or are you just used to it?

It's different when you do the work to move you yourself (or even a part of it, on an e-bike). Other than that, a well designed hood helps, but at a cost of reducing your vision.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#108

Post by ginko »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #87
bambax wrote: post #26

> the £7,695 tiny electric car that has no boot, a 28mph top speed and range of just 46 miles I live in Paris and do everything with an e-bike that also has no boot, no passenger seat, a top speed of ~20mph, a range of ~30 miles... but cost me around €1,200 (since I built it myself). It now has over 7,500 miles. In day trafic it's probably much faster than the Ami, and it can also be put on a train. Couldn't be happi…

Good for you. That does not invalidate the point of a mean of transport alternative to big empty cars riding one person each and to bikes, that ride one person each and have no trunk. Bikes are also more dangerous than small slow 4 wheeled vehicles. Because, you know, bikes don't stand on their own, their braking abilities are very limited due to very thin tyres, they have no stop and turn signals, no rearview mirror…

>Bikes are also more dangerous than small slow 4 wheeled vehicles.

Cars are WAY more dangerous than bicycles.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#109

Post by lzooz »

unglaublich wrote: post #96
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s raining/snowing, or too hot, or too cold, I’d much rather be in an small enclosed car than exposed to the elements on a bike. The Ami has a primitive heater but no air conditioning, but there’s no reason that these limitations are inherent to a vehicle of this size. I imagine an Ami-sized car with creature comforts of a regular vehicle would sell extremely well in cities. Biking is great when the weather is a…

That 'raining, snowing, too hot, too cold' argument keeps coming up. You know, we humans are perfectly capable of dressing up appropriately and just enjoying the fresh air, whether it's warm or cold. In fact, it makes you feel alive! Get the nice warm gloves and raincoat out for winter, or the super light and loose shirt with sunglasses for summer.

Good luck convincing people to give up their cars and go to work soaked in a raincoat every day.

Re: The Citroen Ami – tiny electric car with no boot, 28mph top speed, 46 mile range

#110

Post by [deleted] »

highwaylights wrote: post #4
rwmj wrote: post #3

If this was half the price, say £3,500, I'd probably get one. The price seems wildly out of line with what you get. Also I wonder about modding - larger battery, a roof rack and a bright orange paint job to compensate for lack of safety features.

It would probably cost close to that range just for the battery, but it begs the question who this is for. If your budget is £7k there are plenty of used options around that would involve sacrificing much less than this for about double the range (thinking early Leaf/Zoe/Ion). It’s neat, but it reminds me of the Twizy. Just too many compromises to still make sense.

[deleted]
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