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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

#41

Post by tobz1000 »

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.

No post body was provided.

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

#42

Post by HNDV »

iso1631 wrote: post #36
rwmj wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's nice, but the roads around here are not safe for bicycles of any sort (think pot-holed winding country lanes with lorries speeding at above the 40 mph limit). Until the government gets serious about lowering and enforcing speed limits and introducing cycling infrastructure, an electric car is necessary.

Do you think a plastic vehicle will fare any better in a collision with the average American SUV or truck?

At medium/higher speed collisions? no it wouldn't fare better. But at city street level collision? oh yeah it would fare a huge amount better actually. Not all collisions are the compact this metal box into a smaller cube type of collision.

At 30km/h and lower cyclists have a risk that simply does not exist for a vehicle like the ami and other cheap car like vehicles : being driven over. A car can kill a cyclist while driving as low as 1 kilometer per hour if the cyclist fell on the ground and the car is running the cyclist over. You can't "drive over" an ami. Unless you're driving a Monster Truck.

As a cyclist I am extremely paranoid about things like blind sides on larger vehicles because it takes very little to kill you. VERY. LITTLE.

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

#43

Post by masklinn »

sandworm101 wrote: post #16
zhte415 wrote: post #8

> it has zero airbags. No crash crumple zones. Not a single electronic safety aid. It doesn't even have anti-lock brakes

Exactly. This isn't really a car. It is a fancy electric golf cart with doors.

I mean that's literally in the base blurb, it's an electric quadricycle.

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

#44

Post by hyperbovine »

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.

*Cars as defined by “car people”. Personally I couldn’t care less if my “car looks like a car.” (I don’t even know what that means.) I want it to get me from A to B with a minimum of financial and environmental expense.

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

#45

Post by the_only_law »

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.

Many different auto companies have produced numerous different cars over a very long period of time. Which one is the “official” template of what a car should look like?

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

#46

Post by masklinn »

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.

So far it seems to be very popular as an alternative to buying a scooter for the kid, for parents with enough income. Especially with the £100/month plan.

The nimbleness and ease of charge (the thing comes with what's essentially a hoover charging cord) make it rather convenient for city dwellers or close suburbanites.

It's also much cheaper than license-free cars (Aixam, Chatenet, Ligier).

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

#47

Post by abyssin »

jfengel wrote: post #38
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…

As I understand it, cars are increasingly banned in downtown Paris (even glorified electric bikes like this). I haven't been since before pandemic but I really want to see that. It sounds like a great experiment.

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.

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

#48

Post by stefan_ »

zhte415 wrote: post #8

> it has zero airbags. No crash crumple zones. Not a single electronic safety aid. It doesn't even have anti-lock brakes

You are not meant to take it on a highway, either. It's a bit like saying "pedestrians have zero airbags, crush crumple zones are bones" - you are soo close to getting it!

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

#49

Post by bombcar »

duxup wrote: post #24
sandworm101 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. This isn't really a car. It is a fancy electric golf cart with doors.

I like the open nature of a golf cart. I kinda wish I lived in a golf cart community.

You might be able to turn yours into one, just start driving one!

https://www.clubcar.com/en-us/personal/street-legal-vehicles

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

#50

Post by natch »

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.
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