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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

#271

Post by unglaublich »

elliottkember wrote: post #146
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.

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

While I am a big human-powered-transportation supporter, feeding a human is generally more expensive than paying for gas to have a machine do it.

A human needs some 2kJ / kg / km to ride. That's 1.6MJ.

A car needs ~15L gas per 100km, so that's 45MJ for a 10km ride.

While the car uses 30x as much energy, it will only cost you $1.30.

The human needs 1.6MJ of food. That's about a grilled chicken sandwich. Which will cost you $4.30...

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

#273

Post by tengwar2 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #85
BarryMilo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did we forget the Cybertruck already?

Citroen has a Cybertruck version of this too, called the Oli: https://www.electrifying.com/blog/article/the-ami-gets-a-big...

It's only a research project, unfortunately. I'd be seriously interested in buying one.

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

#275

Post by jcpst »

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…

When I was younger my car broke down and I did not have the money for the replacement part. So I rode my bike to work for 5 months.

This was quite enjoyable most days, it was only 3.5 miles each way. On rainy days, I packed a 2nd set of clothes wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, and also wrapped my laptop in one.

The worst was when it started to drop below 40F outside, and raining.

It was fun until it wasn’t- then repairing the car went near the top of the list.

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

#276

Post by jeffbee »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #232
jeffbee wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want some 70 year old guy driving a car in your city in the snow? People outlive their ability to drive a car by 5-10 years. If you build a city that welcomes and requires cars, and discourages biking and walking, you are dooming the elderly to spending the ends of their lives at home.

70 isn't old.

The visual acuity of a 70-year-old is roughly on par with a 20-year-old wearing dark sunglasses at night.

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

#277

Post by opportune »

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.

To me the size is an advantage. Living in SF this would be easy to park and probably more maneuverable.

A used car comes with maintenance costs, and in practice for this price range would probably be an ICE.

Personally I would be comparing this more to a micro mobility device than a traditional vehicle. In which case it’s a couple times more expensive than a good e-bike but more convenient for errands

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

#278

Post by masklinn »

SimonPStevens wrote: post #236
imoverclocked wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure I'd call 85miles extreme distance. It's very low compared to modern EVs. I'd say this Citroen is totally targeting me. My need is less than 20 miles a day, and I'm saying I'd be nervous about how little buffer that battery would give me. My point really was 46 miles range is too low, even for low usage. In poor conditions with heating, etc, if the range halves that doesn't leave any spare. Unlike an ICE…

> charging takes time, and has limited locations.

It does and has not though. This is a 5.5kW battery, and a European vehicle. So charge takes about 3h on a standard wall socket.

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

#279

Post by warcher »

emptysongglass wrote: post #264
moonchrome wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to own a motorcycle and I commute with a bycicle in ~mediteranian climate. The only two accidents I've ever had on a motorcycle were low speed manuvers in heavy rain when I got caught by a shower. On a bike just riding on a slippery road is terrible and wading through umbrellas, getting splashed by cars in traffic, rain in the eyes. Riding on two wheels makes you extremely exposed - ebikes are just shit motorc…

I'll be another voice to say you're speaking from a myopic perspective. The Dutch bike through rain, sleet or snow without any difficulty. Modern electric cargo bikes like their favorite, Urban Arrow, are fantastically balanced and need only a trained rider to handle through a wide variety of inclement weather.

Yeah I dunno where they're going with this.

You can ski in the snow perfectly comfortably if properly attired, but you can't bike?

In fairness icy streets can get extremely dicey on two wheels-- no arguments there. The US in particular has a lot more extreme weather than Holland. You'll have extended periods where biking on icy concrete is not a great option.

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

#280

Post by masklinn »

404mm wrote: post #205

I love this as a concept. Small, lightweight and ..slow to be fairly safe. The issue is how to integrate it with the rest of the established world. How do you have a little car sharing road with 3ton trucks and speeds 50-70mpg (_read_ 70-90mph, yah, this is Texas). Sadly this vehicle is what vast majority of people really need for daily commute and errands. It’s silly to push for ride sharing.

> How do you have a little car sharing road with 3ton trucks and speeds 50-70mpg (_read_ 70-90mph, yah, this is Texas).

You don’t because this thing is not highway legal and should not be interacting with vehicles going anywhere near 70. It’s an urban vehicle.

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