Limited range and speed perfect for the city.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Ami One was actually a product by Lego. But it’s actually designed by Citroen, envisioned as the ultimate city cruiser, perfect for slotting down narrow streets and exploiting gaps in traffic & parked cars. It’s just 2.5m long, 1.5m wide, and 1.5m tall, and weighs in at comfortably less than half a tonne. It’s basically a Fisher-Price pushcar with an electric powertrain.
Oh yes, you didn’t think any future concept worth its salt wouldn’t be packing batteries, did you? The units used here are decently-dense, low-range variants that can do about 100km on a single charge, with driving speeds up to a face-tearing 45km/h. The lithium-ion cells, stored handily under the floor, takes just 2-hours to charge at a public charger or a wallbox charger, though it can also be plugged into the wall via an extension cable if necessary.
Thanks to legislation demanding that all electric cars make fake noises at low speeds to warn pedestrians, Citroen’s properly lost their baubles and given it a sound signature that melds male & female voices, that changes notes & pitch depending on speed. Of all things…
The Ami One, as is with most modern urban cars, was built with ride-sharing in mind. To that end, there is no key: Drivers unlock their Ami One via a QR code via their smartphone, before then placing that smartphone in a dedicated space ahead of the instrument cluster to turn it into a heads-up display. A 5-inch instrument cluster screen features a funky interface, while there’s a built-in Bluetooth speaker in cabin for smartphones to pair to and stream music through.
Made for millennials with commitment issues, the Ami One (which Citroen describes as a “mobility object,” much to the amusement of the team here at CarShowroom) is not a vehicle that you buy. Instead, when you visit an Ami One Counter to procure your “mobility object,” you can choose to spend up to 5-hours with it in a day, spend 5-days with it, 5-months with it, or 5-years with it. Each Ami One package includes things like battery maintenance & even parking as part of the monthly fee you’d have to pay (with the 5-year option, naturally).
The Ami One is, Citroen alludes, a 2019 reinterpretation of the 1950s Citroen 2CV, which “made freedom of movement broadly accessible.” And while we’ll hold no punches back for the people behind the marketing of the Ami One, as a car (and not just a “mobility object”), there are some seriously good ideas in this little car. Just double the range would you, Citroen?
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