Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thisismoney.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 363 posts

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

#181

Post by TeMPOraL »

iancmceachern wrote: post #113
lzooz wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm an American visiting Paris and have noticed many folks on scooters and ebikes have these skirts that are fabric covers that cover the bike seat and also the legs of the rider when they ride. They also have these mitten like things that attach to the handles that allow you to operate the bike but also protect your hands from the elements. Between those two things, and a decent rain jacket (which you need anyway) i…

Have you seen any solution they're using for transporting things, like groceries or computers or extra clothes?

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

#182

Post by imoverclocked »

gtirloni wrote: post #166
kube-system wrote: post #84

Calling these "cars" is clickbait to make these sound novel. But, NEVs like this (and even better than this) have been around for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Electric_Vehicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadricycle_(EU_vehicle_classi... Part of the reason they are so cheap is that they are legally not cars, and therefore are exempt from many regulations that make cars expensive.

*> exempt from many regulations that make cars expensive. Which I never understood. If you're driving in the middle of the road, why does it matter if it's a NEV or a 18-wheeler? I think the same rules should apply. That NEV can be rear-ended by a regular car at 80km/h and the car driver will be fine with their airbags and whatnot while the NEV driver is probably dead.

You shouldn’t be on roads that are heavily trafficked by fast moving vehicles with this kind of vehicle in the first place.

I own an electric Ranger (not Highway legal) for around my place and it fills a real need. There is no need for airbags or anything of the like on it. I didn’t even bother purchasing it with a windshield. The biggest threat to me in that vehicle is the dense vegetation and steep hills I often drive through.

I think there is an expectation around safety levels of different kinds of vehicles. If I buy a car that is capable of going 100mph, I expect it to have features that will help me survive a crash in those conditions. However, a motorcycle is a completely different kind of vehicle with different expectations. I don’t think a reasonable motorcyclist expects any thing remotely close in safety to that of a car despite also being able to reach the same conditions.

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

#183

Post by forty »

phh wrote: post #17

> And you don't need to have any form of licence to drive one in France! FWIW, that's wrong: only people born before 1985 ~ (i don't know the exact date) don't need any license. People born after that do require a license, which is much much lighter than standard driving license in France, but still requires several hours (I think it takes a whole day?), which I think is equivalent to what actual driving license in s…

Yes, you need the "Permis AM" if you are born in 1988 or after. This category of cars is still often referred as "license less cars" though.

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

#184

Post by Marsymars »

imoverclocked wrote: post #167
SimonPStevens wrote: post #142

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…

I guess this wasn’t made targeting you; I’m glad not every vehicle being made it catering to extreme distance needs. There are a lot of places that are walkable or almost walkable. Having cheaper cars for those places that use less material makes it so that more people can have electric vehicles at a time where batteries are a major limiting factor for production.

It will be nice when the cheaper cars are actually cheaper in a useful way. Here, a new Leaf is $45k vs a new Corolla is $25k. The breakeven time on that for my driving patterns is several multiples longer the life of a car. (Not even taking into account that my house would need thousands of dollars of work to be able to practically charge an EV.)

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

#185

Post by missedthecue »

Mistletoe wrote: post #34
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…

What are the death rates for bicyclists vs small cars like this? I recently considered a motorcycle and the death rates were too appalling for me to go through with it. Having a metal cage around you and windows is too vital for me. Edit: I found this. >The motorcycle fatality rate is over 17 times greater, and bicycle fatality rates are nearly 10 times greater than that for automobiles.

Almost 100% of fatal bicycle accidents involve a vehicle. In urban areas where cars are banned or unable to navigate, the cycling death rate is basically zero.

It's sort of like a market failure. It's in everyone's best interest to ride bicycles, but since we can't individually control what everyone else does, it's in our best interest to ride automobiles -- thus continuing the safety issue.

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

#186

Post by TrueGeek »

moonchrome wrote: post #141
dghlsakjg wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Riding increases with proper infrastructure, even in areas with extremely bad weather.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU

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

#187

Post by ginko »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #168
ginko wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bullet has more kinetic energy because it's significantly faster than a bike. But a bike is actually slower than a car, even an Ami so I don't understand what argument you're trying to make here. Cars kill people every. single. day. All the traffic rules had to be created just because how dangerous and deadly cars are.

> A bullet has more kinetic energy because it's significantly faster than a bike that's part of the problem. The bullet is also shaped to cause damages If the same 50 grams were a disc of few microns of thickness and a diameter of 50 cm, they would be much less dangerous. A bike is shaped like a battering ram, an Ami has to pass very rigorous safety tests and is shaped to cause the less damage possible on impact, bec…

>So a bike going 20mph is more dangerous than an Ami going 25mph.

This is absurd. It makes me really doubt if you have any understanding of physics.

I also don't appreciate you editing your earlier posts to pad out your arguments.

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

#188

Post by Milo0841 »

Any "neighborhood" car in the U.S. needs decent acceleration and a top speed of 45 mph to work in traffic. Even when the speed limit is 30 mph you'll need to speed up to pass a turning vehicle or to avoid a pedestrian. Anything less just isn't safe for everyone involved.

I'm OK with small size, limited range and even the lack of safety features in my sedate neighborhood where I know the streets, potholes and driving patterns. Perfect for an hour of neighborhood errands with five stops, driving to the gym or the library. That's really all we need in a second car.

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

#190

Post by lm28469 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #176
lm28469 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can own multiple pair of shoes, and even have one stay at the office, same for pants. I do it and I don't feel like I'm having a miserable existence But fuck it, let's buy a car and fuck the planet, that's much more convenient, god forbid we sweat or touch the rain, oh the horror !

> You can own multiple pair of shoes, and even have one stay at the office, same for pants. This hints at another counterpoint: it's not just yourself you have to protect from elements, but also whatever it is you want to transport with you. Like those extra shoes. Or electronics. Or groceries. Etc. Waterproof bags probably exist, but I can't say I've seen them available, or used, by anyone at all.

I must live a very peculiar life then. All I need is a backpack and a rain coat, it's been 7 years or so and I haven't experienced anything life changing so far

I get on my bike, go to the store, office, friends, &c. rain, snow, sun, wind, it won't kill you really

Post reply on HN