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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

#141

Post by moonchrome »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #83
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…

Quite honestly, an ebike solves a lot of this. I thought I would never use it in the winter, but a cheap rain suit is perfect to keep me warm and dry, and takes about 20 seconds to put on or take off. I don’t have to worry about sweat since if I get too hot I can just use the throttle or dial up the electric assist. I thought I would never use the thing in winter, but I actually find it absurdly practical.

Sorry but that's delusional - riding in the rain, and especially when it's snowy/icy - is order of magnitude more dangerous - traction/breaking/reduced visibility.

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

#142

Post by SimonPStevens »

I do love this, and hope more things like it gets made so there is choice. It's exactly the kind of thing I want for most of my day to day traveling.

It's competition though is what I did instead. Last year I brought a 7 year old Nissan leaf.

£9,800. 22Kwh battery (probably degraded about 15%, so estimated actual capacity is around 18Kwh) which gives me about 85 miles range with the current battery state. And I get a decent sized boot, 5 seats and 80+mph top speed.

I love my leaf, and use it to commute around 20 miles total each day plus lots of other local travel. It's perfect as a 2nd car for town driving.

However, that 85 mile range is only in good conditions. With the heating on in winter it's range is probably more like 40 miles. I'd say this Citroen's battery is too small for me to buy compared to my leaf. 46 mile range doesn't give you much spare, especially in winter when using heating. Unless charge points become a lot more ubiquitous. It shouldn't take them much to double the battery size though, and then I'd seriously go for this.

(Edit to add, my leaf also has air bags and antilock breaks. What with it being an actual car)

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

#143

Post by ahoy »

rdl wrote: post #76

The NEV category (basically golf cart) make sense in specific neighborhoods -- not in dense cities (where they're still too big), not in really long distance rural settings (although a Gator/UTV or something on your own property can be awesome), but in the right kind of suburban/resort/etc. community, amazing. I am not a big fan of bicycle/moped/motorcycle because I usually want more stuff with me if I'm not just goi…

You'd be surprised what you can get on a bicycle with just a rear rack and a bag. It does require a bit more planning ahead, which I'll admit can be annoying.

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

#144

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

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?

I guess my face does not freeze? I have a scarf and a hat, and that's pretty much it for me to feel … fine? Generally I never really get cold cycling because I am moving. It's different when I'm walking in the cold where typically my feet get cold fast and I feel abysmal.

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

#145

Post by simlevesque »

thiht wrote: post #115
unglaublich wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except when you go to work and have to spend the day with your pants and shoes drenched. And if you have glasses, you quickly can't see anything.

I have a shoes dryer in my office for this reason.

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

#146

Post by elliottkember »

lzooz wrote: post #109
unglaublich wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hopefully, ever-increasing gas prices will do the convincing.

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

#147

Post by csa »

masklinn wrote: post #97
Robotbeat wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of people who don’t have electric cars don’t realize that essentially every electric car can be charged with a “Hoover charging cord.”

Charging a Model S over an american household plug takes 3 days.

> Charging a Model S over an american household plug takes 3 days.

… from zero to full.

If you just want to top up the 30-40 miles that are driven in a day, then 10-12 hours overnight is fine with a regular plug.

People ask me all the time about how long it takes me to charge my tesla. I tell them that it’s a different mentality than ICE cars:

1. Instead of a cycle of low/empty —> full —> low/empty, it’s a cycle of use —> top up when not using —> use. For most people, a regular wall outlet is fine.

2. If a regular wall outlet is used as the main charging source, then a supercharger may need to be used after long trips to top up. If you have days when you don’t drive much or at all (e.g., if you work from home or have a short commute), then even this can be skipped since you will eventually get full.

3. For road trips, something people seem to think requires long wait times, aim to keep the battery in approximately the 20-60% charge range. This allows for two hour recurring range with a margin for error while maximizing battery charge speed at super chargers. Typical charging time will be the amount of time it takes to go to the bathroom and get something to drink plus maybe a short stretch if those things go very fast. For me personally, bathroom and drink of some sort at a nearby Starbucks (which are frequently near superchargers) is almost perfect timing.

4. The only genuinely sucky thing about EV charging is road trips during peak travel times, especially holidays. The current infrastructure doesn’t handle peak demand well, but I think that will be fixed over time.

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

#148

Post by lm28469 »

johnisgood wrote: post #129
lm28469 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As my grandma would say, you're not made of sugar. If the new baseline for human life is to not be exposed to rain and never sweat we can give up now because we'll never manage to make that sustainable.

Aluminium-based antiperspirants work for days between re-use if anyone is worried about sweating (and yeah, according to studies it is not as unhealthy as people think it is, at least not in those amounts, and no one told you to bathe in it). Not being exposed to rain... well... I dunno, I live in Europe and people just dress up appropriately. Mostly it is just a matter of using an umbrella anyways... and proper clot…

> Aluminium-based antiperspirants work for days between re-use if anyone is worried about sweating

Or go to the bathroom, change tshirt, use some deo and you're set for the day, it really isn't rocket science. You're exercising, saving hundreds of kilos of co2 per year, and saving 10+ sqmeter of parking space. Not to mention no gas, no insurance, virtually no maintenance.

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

#149

Post by tialaramex »

DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #133
tialaramex wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just can't fix the extreme edges this way. Above about 300K that "super light and loose shirt" is still drenched with sweat unless your "assist" is doing all the work or there's a pretty stiff wind. Below about 250K the "nice warm clothing" needed to make this comfortable would become too bulky to make ordinary movement practical, so we skimp. We tell ourselves nope, we're just not going outside except to do stuf…

What is 300k? Are you using kelvin here?

300K. Yes. I don't find it very convenient to work with these weird signed temperatures.

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

#150

Post by pantalaimon »

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.

You'll probably be able to get a used one for that price.
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