Mat Watson recently had the opportunity to review the Ami, a quirky urban dweller that’s considered a light quadricycle back home in France. 14-year-old teens can drive this squared-off EV after passing the road safety certificate, and obviously enough, the pint-sized Citroen is pretty damn slow in terms of acceleration, speed, and quarter-mile performance.
Carwow’s presenter had to wait 7.38 seconds for the speedometer to reach 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour), and the Ami refuses to go higher than 27.8 miles per hour (45 kilometers per hour) by design. The standing eighth-mile takes 19.33 seconds, and the quarter-mile mark is reached after 35.53 seconds. By comparison, the strip-slaying Dodge Challenger SRT Demon needs one second to hit 30 mph (48 kph), merely 2.3 seconds for 60 mph (97 kph), and 9.65 seconds for the quarter-mile at 140 mph (225 kph).
As opposed to the limited-edition muscle car, the French runabout costs in the ballpark of 6,000 euros or $7,050 at current exchange rates. Mat prefers a second-hand Jaguar S-Type V8 for that kind of money, but still, we’re talking apples and oranges here. The Ami “is a practical response to new mobility expectations for short journeys” according to Citroen, which is why the V8-engined sedan comparison isn’t exactly the most inspired one.
A two-seater electric vehicle that features a jumbo greenhouse for great all-around visibility, the Ami doesn’t like inclines too much because of the 8-horsepower electric motor and 5.5-kWh battery pack that offers a driving range of 70 kilometers (43.5 miles). Tipping the scales at 485 kilograms (1,069 pounds), the Ami can be charged in three hours from a 230-volt household outlet. Speaking of which, Citroen designed this fellow exclusively for home charging because a fast-charging system would’ve been too expensive for a no-frills microcar. The cabin isn’t exactly great in terms of build quality and finishes either, and heaven forbid you to drive this cutesy quadricycle on a hot day because the fan doesn’t blow hard enough.
As for the biggest strong point of the Citroen Ami, that would be the Free2Move pay-as-you-go rental service that offers more than 500 examples of the Ami in Paris alone for the not-so-princely sum of $0.65 per minute.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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