It takes a little time to figure out some of the new Citroen Ami's quirks. The full-electric vehicle has symmetrical doors. The driver's door is hinged at the rear, the passenger's at the front.
Opening the doors from the outside is no problem because the handles function like on any vehicle. The situation changes drastically once inside the Ami. Each door has an orange cord that is there to pull once inside the car. That cord also used to unlock the door before opening it, which is not intuitive.
Like any car equipped with an automatic transmission, the Ami does not have a gear shift. Instead, it has buttons for drive, neutral and reverse, but they are very difficult to find because they are on the lower left side of the driver's seat base. A raincoat could completely obscure these buttons from view.
These oddities are the result of Citroen's push to make the Ami as simple and affordable as possible. The tiny, boxy electric vehicle is made of fewer than 250 parts, which is about one-tenth as many as a traditional car.
Citroen's quirky, affordable Ami
The Citroen Ami's 5.5-kilowatt-hour battery provides a range of 70 km (43.5 miles). It has symmetrical doors, with driver's side hinged at the rear, the passenger's at the front.
Each door on the Citroen Ami has a multifunction orange cord. Occupants use it to pull the door closed and to unlock the door. To listen to music occupants connect their smartphone to an optional loudspeaker that fits perfectly in one of the two cupholders.
Citroen took a number of significant steps to keep costs down.
- The entire front and rear portions are symmetrical, using the exact same plastic piece and resulting in a cube-like design.
- None of the vehicle's plastic body panels are painted.
- It does not offer air conditioning, opting instead for a fan. It does have a small electric heater.
- The only display is a small LCD instrument panel in front to the steering wheel that tells the driver the speed and the gear being used.
- There is no navigation system.
- To listen to music occupants connect their smartphone to an optional loudspeaker that fits perfectly in one of the two cupholders.
The end result is a vehicle that starts at 7,200 euros in Italy. That price drops to 5,430 euros once incentives offered in the country are applied.
While the interior of the Ami is truly spartan, it has plenty of usable space. There is a recessed luggage area at the passenger's feet that can accommodate a bag that would fit in the storage bin on a plane. There is another storage space behind the seats.
The Ami's 5.5-kilowatt-hour battery provides a range of 70 km (43.5 miles) and can be fully charged in three hours using a 230-volt outlet that is standard in European homes. The Ami was designed for home charging only.
The 6 kilowatt (8.2 hp) electric motor helps the Ami move smoothly in the city traffic, but it lacks the instant acceleration found in most full-electric models because performance was sacrificed to keep costs down.
Another feature that makes city driving easier in the Ami's is that it has a turning radius of just 7.2 meters, that means U-turns can be completed almost everywhere.
Ami is classified in the EU as a quadricycle, which by law have a top top speed of 45 kph (32 mph) and weight a maximum of 425 kg (936 pounds) without batteries. With its batteries, the Ami weights 471 kg.
Quadricycle can be driven by people as young as 14 years old. No driver's license is needed to operate the vehicle in many countries.
One big difference between the Ami and its top rival, Renault Twizy, is that the Citroen model's two seats are side by side with the Twizy is configured more like a motorcycle with the passenger located behind the driver.
