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

thisismoney.co.uk

291–300 of 363 posts

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

#291
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…

Check the FreZe NIKROB EV [1]. EU version of the popular Chinese Mini EV, 4 seats, has AC.

[1] https://nikrob.at/ edit: typo.

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

#292

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…

> 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…

Very much this. Not having to faff with parking is one of the reasons I love my e-bike. It saves five minutes on what’s only a ten minute bike ride anyway.

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

#293
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’ve been running that experiment with great success in the Netherlands since the 1970s. It’s great to see, and even better to experience in your everyday life. I love feeling connected to my environment.

The Netherlands is not a regular country and cannot be used as a template for any other country in the World, except maybe some flat urban area, like Copenhagen, or the Vatican (which has a few hills more than the Netherlands BTW) p.s. Dutch did not like to hear this, but somebody had to say it.

People cycle in the city of Lausanne (Switzerland), which has a 500m height difference between its lowest point and highest point.

Of course nobody is doing these 500m every day, but its common to see parents bring their children to school by electric bike, and maybe doing 100m of height elevation.

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

#294
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…

> In day trafic it's probably much faster than the Ami

No way, man. The Ami has flames on the side:

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/weird/ha-check-out-citroens...

And does your e-bike strike fear in the hearts of criminals everywhere?

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/citroen-ami-now-po...

I think not.

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

#296

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.

So what? It has about 10 times the range of the Ami. Especially if you drive it at just 28mph. 8 hours of charging at is about enough to equal that range with a Model 3. And at the higher voltage of UK circuits, about half that.

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

#297
post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Around two-thirds of the 110,000 traffic victims treated in Dutch hospitals in 2021 were cyclists, according to VeiligheidNL. www.techtimes.com/amp/articles/274249/20220413/e-bike-injuries-rise-despite-safety-precautions-according-dutch-organization.htm And that's in a place with top tier biking infrastructure.

The victims are cyclists because so many dutch people cycle! (Because the infrastructure is so good) Per Capita, cycling in the Netherlands is far far safer than cycling in the US.

Yes but far more unsafe than using a car !

> “The Dutch data for last year (2019) shows that in absolute figures more people died in car crashes (237) than on a bicycle (203). If you calculate the figure per kilometre travelled that is reversed. Per one billion kilometres travelled the figure for cycling is 11 while the figure for car occupants is 1.6 fatalities.”

Why do I have to google these self-evident facts ? No matter how good your bike lanes are two wheels are very sensitive and unforgiving and the vehicle offers 0 protection (and in fact gets in the way of softening the landing/balancing back).

The bike enthusiasm seems to override rationality - like if I strapped a child seat on a rear seat of a motorcycle social services would take my child - meanwhile if I do it on an ebike I'm praised for being environmental - despite the similar risk factor.

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

#298
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…

>I don't think I'd be willing to use a Citroen for branding reasons.

Why???

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

#299

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.

So do bicycles need airbags and side impact protection and abs too then?

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

#300

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…

So you mishandled a motor vehicle that weighs 4-5x, with 100x the power as much as an ebike in the rain, and you commute using a bicycle which explicitly causes the downsides that I avoid using an ebike. I’m not surprised your experience is different It sounds like your experience is different because haven’t actually tried using an ebike. I used to think that a bike and an ebike were basically the same use case. Aft…

I actually worked for a company making ebikes for a while so got my chance to try them out - like I said - motorcycle with cheap components, handles better for sure because it's lighter - but it's not built for traffic speeds.

People think because kids can drive it that it's safe - like I've said - quick Google search shows higher accident rate for ebikes than motorcycles ! And we are comparing to cars here - that's like >10x risk increase.

And every self built one I've seen had a way to remove speed limiting block (interested if have yours limited ?). That's a recepie for disaster.

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