Why the new Citroen Ami is the EV city bubble car 14 year olds can drive // The Late Brake Show

are you 14 years old are you french do  you not want to use an uber or an electric   scooter or a bicycle or a bus in which case  you could quite easily go out and buy or hire   one of these it's a car actually it's not a car  it's a citroen amy i'll explain that in a minute   i'm johnny smith welcome to the late break show let me explain in a bit more detail  in france you don't have to be 17   to drive a car like this and it's not  really a car like i said it's a quadricycle   and a quadricycle the definition of that is  well it's it's low powered and this was a   concept that citroen brought out last year  for their 100th anniversary their centenary   called the ami one concept and the ami concept  is almost the same as this car which is already   as i speak in production it's a fantastic essay  in utilitarian vehicles and driving citron says   it's not intending to sell lots of them to the  public it's intending to sell a lot to fleets   this is not a car you're going to do long commutes  in but if you live in a city or a congested town   or you're maybe an older person that just does  very short little shuttle runs this will work   just fine psa group have their own car sharing app  where you can just hire it by the minute at these   roadside places where you just dial it up on on an  app on your phone and just go and use it for half   an hour and then drop it off and that's what this  is going to be for i think this is going to be for   a younger generation of person that wants easy  mobility without the hassle of ownership a lot of   people don't want to own cars anymore i say cars  it isn't a car but you know what i mean so front   wheel drive 26 miles an hour 43 mile range lithium  ion batteries three and a half hours to charge it   from empty but that uses a three pin plug only  so a normal household socket but inside there's   loads of storage because there isn't a bonnet  and there isn't a boot it's all about the cabin in here two-seater and it's really constructed  out of lots of smooth easy to clean materials so   the kind of world we live in right now with germs  uh and cleaning being easy this is fantastic it's   a bit like a public transport in many ways and  i think that's the idea that citron have got   with this car less people are going to buy out  right more people are going to car share and   use these things with apps where you can just  go and use it for an hour and then give it back   so easy to clean formed plastic kind of bucket  seats with very thin you know hard-wearing vinyl   patches on them actually quite comfortable more  comfortable than i was expecting but look how   deep the floors are and how much space you've  got it reminds me really of the first time i got   in a smart in about the year 2000 so 20 years  ago i was amazed at what you could fit into a   short wheelbase it's so deceiving passenger seat  is fixed driver's seat is movable and you've got   loads of legroom like i need i can't drive this  with the seat all the way back i'm quite tall   there's your dash just this little pod turn  the ignition on normal key one click it gives   you things like indicators gives you state of  charge gives you speedo in kilometers an hour   it doesn't have any tech on board the ami  and the reason for that is simplicity of   cost production so you bring the tech with you  your phone docks here there's a usb there on this   little plinth that you can adjust and i've been  saying this for ages this is what cars of all   genres and all price points should have just have  access and connectivity to one of those then you   haven't got to waste millions of euros dollars  developing infotainment integrated into car that's   going to go out of date pretty much instantly this  is the future i think it's got a heated windscreen   that's that's the future there's an interesting  stat actually before i get cracking and this blew   me away the prediction is that in 2030 by 2030  one in three kilometers covered will be by shared   mobility in other words a lot of people don't want  to own vehicles anymore especially if you live   in a city space and that's where something like  this could really help to mobilize people that   don't want to necessarily use a scooter or  a moped or the bus or something like that   should we just stop talking and drive this  bloody thing come on we've got a city to explore   i'm going urban people i'm going urban get in i'm going out onto the british roads for the  very first time in the ami electric so this   isn't officially going to be on sale in the uk yet  although there is a fair chance that it will make   it according to citroen what you have to bear in  mind is the fact that this is made for urban use   or super short journeys totaling around that's why  there's no fast charging on it and the top speed   is what i'm doing right now this is v-max 45-46  kilometers an hour which equates to 26 miles an   hour in other words i can drive a v-max pretty  much all around towns and cities and i'm not   i'm not breaking the law oh yeah i've got 46 going down that hill then  bit of regen when i come off the throttle you   can hear it it's quite loud because there's  no soundproofing there's no effort for any   soundproofing in fact full throttle  at the junction six kilowatts of power   five and a half kilowatt hours on the  battery pack the lithium-ion battery pack   i think this is a 48-volt car bear in  mind a porsche tyre can is 800 volts   gives you an idea of the kind of power we're  dealing with i'm loving all the storage   opportunities here it's just simple driving isn't  it and isn't it bizarre to think that in france   this is a son's permiss car as they call it  which means you don't need a driving licence   you just have to do a basic compulsory road safety  certificate course and then from the ages of 14   upwards you can drive it without a license which  is why people that have been banned from driving   adults that have been banned from driving  in france often buy these to get around it   so if you've been caught driving after two bottles  of beaujolais just get yourself a son's permis car   which i think is not right what is right is  the fact that this is almost rebirthing the   the ideals the ethos of the 2cv and the ethos  of the 2cv was to mobilize a nation post-war   to create freedom and mobility for for  all classes working classes and that   could be what this this could be for the 2020s  but fully electric really short 2.4 meters long   14 inch wheels these panels  are mirrored on the other side   from the waist up 50 of the car is glass it's got  a panoramic roof as standard there's already a   thing out called the renault twizy which you have  known about for several years and that's classed   as a quadricycle but the problem with the twizy is  is although it's fun to drive and it's very narrow   and nimble it's only really worthy in countries  where it doesn't rain so much in britain we have   stuff that comes out of the sky a lot and it's  actually quite cold this is a full-bodied vehicle   so yeah smaller power output and slower than the  twizzy but also it's nearly half the price of the   twizzy i think twizzy start from about eleven and  a half thousand pounds this is six thousand euros   i remember when i met nico rosberg a few years ago  he said it's his favorite car the renault twizy   perfect for monaco well we're not in  monaco now this is coventry the metropolis   now coventry was known as britain's detroit it  was the second biggest producer of automobiles   of cars in the world back in the 1950s and it's  the home of the british motor industry because   in 1896 a chap called henry lawson set up the  daimler car company here and then all through   the the boom car time of the the 30s this place  was was building up for car production and then   in the war it was renowned for munitions and uh  airplane production parts and that is why in 1940   some chap called adolf hitler decided to blitz  the place and pretty much return it to rubble of course no gearbox direct drive there's no  complicated dash there's a big hook to hook me   shopping on my curry or my handbag i don't have  a curry or a handbag at the moment i'm afraid   and the front looks the same as the  back because it's the same panel   i love that it reminds me of a dog it reminds  me of is it a pug the front looks a bit puggy   well on the back because it's the same look  at them turning circle on that 7.2 meters   obviously you can hear a lot of  vibrations and stuff like that   but you don't have to be in a luxurious  flash car to enjoy driving stuff like this   could restore the faith of driving enjoyment  i've got a girl smoking and laughing at me   if this encourages the new younger generation  who don't necessarily want to own cars   just to enjoy driving i'm totally for that and  it's simple so if you bought one or you leased one   you can customize it in minutes i would  love to customize one of these i think it's   fantastic i don't think it looks embarrassing  i think it's incredibly innovative actually   especially if some of the materials are made  from recycled fabrics and fibers and that's when   things can get really interesting and you can  customize the colors and things within minutes   there's a space in there for a cabin size suitcase  and then you've got this separation net which is   an accessory i think that you can fit yourself and  talking of accessories this card has got lots of   orange accents but they don't have to be orange  you can pick between um four other colors khaki   orange blue gray and then the seven accessories  yeah you've got this handbag this handbag hook   here you've got these amazing pull out and these  are rubber actually kind of organizers all along   the top of the dash you've got no bonnet or boot  um storage and then behind the two seats you've   actually got quite a deep recess in here again  it's all smooth plastic so dead easy to disinfect   and there's a there's a screen wash access port  there but you're sat right by the back window   so it feels like you're driving a london taxi from  the back seat because all of the vision and all of   the space is here and that's the other thing about  reviewing this car is a bit odd for me because the   chances are most people aren't going to buy one  of these they're going to use one via car sharing   apps or that kind of stuff rent one temporarily  or long term and citroen is saying that you'll be   able to long term lease one for uh 48 months for  as little as 30 euros a month 30 euros a month   nippy do you remember that thing that norwegian  little electric city car from a good decade ago   called the think i think ford bought into it where  did that go because it i've got vibes of that   the think story began in the mid 90s with a  norwegian startup company called piv4 or piv4   they built an ev two plus two  developed of all people with lotus   it was ready by 1999 but pivko's finances who  owned the piv4 were a bit crap so ford bought a   majority stake for 90 million pounds and rebranded  it as a ford think city production restarted in   2000 along with golf carts and early e-bikes in  fact production ended in 2002 with 1005 cars made   ford sold its stake in 2003 but think  ran out of cash in 2006 when deals with a   young startup called tesla went sour but then  a norwegian investment company stepped in   and they had a second go and these second gen cars  had 24 kilowatt hour battery pack 99 mile range   46 horsepower and 68 mile an hour top speed the  company finally died in 2012 because people didn't   want to spend 36 thousand dollars on one but there  are even ambulance versions out there an even   stranger quadricycle-esque story is the coupod a  french-imported quadricycle company owned by tv's   noel edmunds the one-time top gear presenter in  the olden days effectively put a silly body shell   in the steering wheel on a 40 mile an hour quad  bike it wasn't very good no deal knoll no deal   mate i'm enjoying the army you know of course it's  flawed and you can't really compare it to a normal   car because even a smart car feels superior  in terms of luxury and in terms of performance   i've just beaten i've just beaten  that guy off the line i've had him he's he's a bit pissed off i've got another chance   got another chance watch it's gonna  get blown away by six kilowatts of ev   let's do this let's do this am i going to take him  he's edging up he's edging up for the start line it's only 485 kilos i'm on it i've got him i've had him off the  line that's all it counts now it doesn't matter oh man why'd you be able to do that as  a 14 15 16 year old in paris hilarious   look there's a citroen c1 and look how much  bigger that is than this and that's a tiny car   this isn't the first idea that a kind of  non-car carry thing has been made of course   the bubble car era was huge in the 1950s and  they weren't quite cars a lot of them were trikes   quadricycles and they've got a  huge amount of style for them here we go v-max onto the ring road v-max  there we go done shouldn't really do this   i don't think because if you can't even do 30  miles an hour should you be on a city ring road   i'm sorry coventry you know what there's  some very cool concrete in coventry people are joining the ring road much quicker  than me oh my gosh those lorries look big the thing is though this is the  same height as a lot of cars   so unlike other quadricycles that tend  to be lower this is good in that respect   it has a 5.5 kilowatt hour battery pack  and the battery pack i think is under there   let me just check that oh no it's under there  it's under there when you look under it you   realize what it is it's pretty much a plastic  body dropped over a box section steel frame   because it doesn't have to comply to all the  regulations that a normal car does and the doors are the same at the and they're interchangeable  but look to make them interchangeable one of   them has to be suicide isn't it great and the  windows look if you like your classic two cvs   the dna of the two cv is strong in this one look  it's a window it's ambidextrous again a window   that just clips down and folds up like so in  paris where these have already started being   rolled out i bet there's so many graffiti points  i bet that it's the kind of car which would look   really cool graffiti imagine having a bank siame  this clever design of symmetrical panels bringing   down the cost of production and making replacing  parts and repairs easy it's great it's so citric   i think this is this sort of thing is what  citroen was born to do citroen's really good at   quirky design but functional utilitarian and by  very definition of that it makes it cool i think fit for purpose fit for purpose is a term that  people don't massively practice anymore really   on most of the cars we drive fit for purpose today  probably not but here's an example of something   which i think is citroen doing what it does best  it's going back to its roots properly utilitarian   cheap easy to repair but has an element  of enjoyment and driving and this is the   thing i'm reviewing a car that most people  probably won't actually buy they'll borrow it a lot of people are borrowing cars but it's  still got to be enjoyable to drive right   surely thank you so much for watching this is  the late break show i've been johnny smith and   that has been a car which you can drive  as a 14 year old in france or if you're a   french adult who's been banned from driving it's a cool thing you

Channel: The Late Brake Show

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Keywords: microcar, smallest car in the world, smallest EV, carpervert, jonny smith review, new citroen ami, new Citroen EV, cheapest ev car, new citroen ami drive review, renault twizy rival, new ev city car, new bubble car, new micro car, Why the new Citroen Ami is the EV city bubble car 14 year olds can drive // The Late Brake Show, jonny smith ev review, citroen ami real world drive, classic citroen, cheap ev buying guide, slowest new car on sale, the late brake show, smart car rival

Id: uUEKtOGmpVI

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020