► A new two-seat, all-electric city runabout
► 46-mile range, left-hand drive only
► Coming to the UK spring 2022, circa £6k
Citroën's tiny electric car, the Ami, WILL go on sale in the UK - and now the brand's also confirmed that the miniature van-alike Ami Cargo will also see sale.
Citroen calls the Ami Cargo a 'practical mobility solution for delivery drivers and business operators'. In reality, 'cargo' is quite a generous descriptor - with a maximum load capacity smaller than the boots of some superminis, this is for last-mile urban deliveries of small packages only.
But the UK's addiction to Amazon means that there's plenty of those to go around...
What's different about the Ami Cargo?
The passenger seat has been removed and replaced with a polypropylene cargo module - or a big plastic box. This can be accessed via what was once the passenger door (on the UK nearside - Ami Cargos remain left-hand drive) or by lifting the top.
It'll hold 260 litres with a maximum payload of 140kg.
Citroen reckons the Ami Cargo will be popular in big cities where not only is it practical - small, electrically-powered and cheap to run - but characterful and eye-catching. The Ami Cargo turns heads, and can be liveried up to become a really dinky moving billboard. Just the sort of thing businesses were doing with Renault Twizys not so long ago.
Citroen Ami - full details
The Ami is essentially a low-cost urban mobility pod – which you can pick-up for about €6 an hour on Parisienne streets, or buy outright for €6000 in France – and can be reserved from Monday 27 September 2021 for a refundable £250.
Citroën UK's number-crunchers are still working on the final prices to lease the EV or buy it, but it's set to be the country's lowest cost 'car' – although it's actually a quadricycle.
It'll be far cheaper than its kindred spirit, the Renault Twizy, which is also a titchy, electric quadricycle, but costs about twice times as much at £11,995.
How much re-engineering is needed for the UK?
Don't hold your breath for a steering wheel on the right side of the car; UK Amis will remain strictly left-hand drive.
Citroën UK managing director Eurig Druce – the driving force behind the 1.4m-wide vehicle's introduction this side of the channel – says: 'Is it really a problem? When you sit in the Ami, you're not far away from the right side in any case. If we moved the steering wheel, you're talking about maybe a 30cm shift in position.'
In France the two-seat Ami charges its 5.5kWh battery in just three hours off a domestic plug; for the UK, it will need converting to a Type 2 socket to access public chargers and domestic wallboxes. Other changes naturally include converting the digital odometer to mph, and realigning the headlamps.
'We need to take these things into consideration and we have to deliver a return for generating those changes,' says Druce.
Expect the modifications to take the sticker price beyond £6000, but still beneath the £8995 of the cheapest Dacia (the Sandero), though the use case is far narrower. To help keep costs down, smart, functional design includes interchangeable body panels front-to-back, identical doors even down to the hinge position and windows that are flipped open by hand.
The man behind the gamble, Eurig Druce
Citroën's CEO Vincent Cobée is clearly fond of his managing director in the UK. Earlier in the year, Cobée told Car: 'Eurig is shaking the boat, I have every faith in him. He spent hours with us on Ami, driving it and he said: "I'd like to consider launching it in the UK." I replied: "Eurig, it's left-hand drive!" To which he responded: "I don't care, I'm going to try nonetheless"!'
With the enthusiasm of a child lobbying parents for a first smartphone, Druce clandestinely set up an Ami 'register your interest' page on the UK website. So far it's pulled in 12,000 potential customers – who get priority reservation access from today, Wednesday 22 September – and the boss is keen to convert them.
Druce's interested parties include plenty of urban dwellers, but also retired rural folk who want a zero emission way to visit local services in nearby villages. So long as they can avoid A-roads: top speed is 28mph, but that's adequate for snarled-up cities.
In France, the vast majority of Ami consumers don't own a Citroën. 'Their average age is 15 years younger than the norm, and 48 per cent are considering letting their teenagers drive the vehicle,' explains Cobée. French regulations allow 14-year-olds to pilot the EV; in the UK, drivers require a full licence and must therefore be at least 17.
Will I be able to pick up an Ami off the street?
Druce admits that Citroën UK is still working on the business case, but the Ami will be sold outright as that's the primary means of transaction so far, despite its online sales channel.
'There will be a high number of people who want to have usage of the vehicle,' he continues. 'And I have a vision of a collection of Amis on street corners, and it becomes a norm that you get an Ami not an Uber. High ambition!'
The Free2Move app allows pay-as-you-go driving in some mainland European cities, but there's also a lease plan where customers pay a deposit of a hundred euros, then pay €75 a month – the same price as a Paris Metro pass.
More news on Ami pricing in the UK – and further developments to the product offer – as we get them.
Citroen Ami: the new car debrief
Meet the Citroen Ami – the iconic French company’s latest attempt to provide mobility for all – a cute, two-seater city EV, which can be rented from just £17 per month. And if you’re in France, you can drive one without a car licence from the age of 14. If mum lets you…
Citroen describes it as a micro-mobility solution that’s environmentally sound as well as safer and more usable than the usual scooters, bicycles and mopeds you see in city centres, while being priced to compete with public transport. It follows on from the Ami One concept car of last year.
The Ami is tiny, measuring a mere 2.41m in length and has a taxi-like 7.20m turning diameter. Its makers say that parking and city driving in it is an absolute doddle. Compared with a moped or scooter it’s more sociable to sit side-by-side in a comfortable, warm and enclosed space, but we’ll see if the Ami comes close to challenging the dominance of two-wheeled city transport.
Driven: our Citroen Ami review
As micro-cars go, it’s a cute-looking thing and Citroen says its customisation options are what sets the Ami apart from rival offerings.
Tell us about the tech on the new Citroen Ami
It’s an all-electric quadricycle with a maximum speed of 28mph, and is said to have a battery range of 43 miles. Citroen says that is a far greater distance than the average travelled by typical city dwellers.
The production version of the Citroen Ami packs a 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery, housed flat under the floor, and can be recharged from a three-pin (sorry, two-pin) socket in around three hours. It can also be charged at one of the many public chargers that litter our cities.
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It’s a light and spacious thing, with an interior that’s roomy for two - and unlike some quadricycles such as the Renault Twizy, there's full glazing and a panoramic roof. In fact, more than 50% of its upper body is glazed, so there will be no excuse for not being seen at those tricky priorite a driote roundabouts in Paris. There are masses of storage spaces inside, too.
And the design?
Like last year’s concept, it comes with symmetrical parts, so replacing doors will be a simple matter, as passenger and driver’s side are identical. The side windows are also symmetrical for the simplest production possible. Front and rear bumpers, the bottoms of the bumpers and under-body panels are also identical – very clever.
There are seven versions to choose from, and it’s available with a variety of options to make the car your own – so there are storage nets, mats, a smartphone clip, a dongle which connects live data to your Ami smartphone app. There are also two packs to choose from – My Ami Pop and My Ami Vibe.
How much does it cost to charge an electric car?
So, who is the Citroen Ami aimed at?
Michel Costa, market research manager for the Citroen Ami project says: ‘The common denominator among all future users will not be their gender, age, socio-professional category, place of residence or even less their level of education, but rather their need for mobility.
‘I'm talking about the need for a solution for frequent trips, short distances (going to the supermarket, to the gym), a solution that is simple and easy to access and use (no need for a licence). I'm talking about a very affordable and resolutely modern electrical solution. Ami is the perfect solution to answer these needs.’
How much will it cost and when is it coming to the UK?
There are some interesting finance and rental options available on the Ami. If you’re set on having one of your own, you can pick up a long-term rental from €19.99 per month (£17) over 48 months with an initial payment of €2644 (£2220). That’s the most conventional way.
You can also subscribe to the Free2Move car-sharing scheme, which you literally pay as you go for anything from €0.26/min (22p per minute) plus a monthly fee of €9.90 (£8.30) with no commitment. And if you’re really old school, you can buy one outright for €6000 (around £5000). That or a secondhand Renault Twingo? Tough call…
In the UK, expect that price to creep up to around £6000 outright. You can get one from spring 2022.
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