Hacker News Reader

Comment by red_hare | Hacker News Reader

I think the Citroen Ami might get close to what you want.

It’s amazingly small, underpowered, and cost efficient (for example, they don’t manufacture separate left and right doors for it, the passenger-side door just opens backwards).

https://www.citroen.com/en/Highlight/131/ami-100t-electric-m...

I really hope that _these_ are the kinds of cars that will get us to mass adoption and not Teslas.

View on HN

The Citroën Ami is a no permit car, so it is a bit specific and probably won't be used by people who need a car to travel between cities.

The Renault Zoe is a "normal" car and fit the bill for a more "simple" electric car. They now have the Twingo Electric also which is the size of a usual twingo (roughly like a Citroën C1/Peugeot 107) and cheaper than the Zoe.

The price difference is huge. Ami is €6,000 (incl. VAT) while the Renault Zoe is £27,595 and the Twingo Electric is €20,690-€24,790

I mean, yes. But the price difference between a bike and the Ami is also huge.

It’s because they’re different things.

But it is connected. Thereby it can be remotely disabled. Which actually happened a few times. Because the battery is rented...

Just a search for "Renault remote disabled" should be sufficient to get you some headlines.

Cheers!

This is beautiful. To me, cars are appliances and I couldn't care less what they're like as long as they get me from point A to B safely and at minimal cost and time. I hope we get something like this in the US one day.

The number of people who will drive a clown car like that is pretty small.

Well no. This is a "no permit" car. It is a type of car that you can drive without a driving license in France (you just need to pass the written exam). These are always very small (due to their nature), and are actually quite popular, mostly in city. Either because they are used by people who lost their driving license but still need a car in the meantime, or they are used by people who live in the city and don't want to bother getting their driving license (which is much more expensive and time-consuming in France than in the U.S).

It's a quadricycle, not a "clown car", and with an excellent price / quality ratio.

45 kph, range of 70 km, at 6000 euros.

https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/citroen-says-ami-ev-w...

In the US, perhaps. In Europe you see quite a few cars that size.

It'd be a great commuter car. Cheap to buy, cheap to "gas" up, cheap to maintain. You're usually only commuting with yourself anyhow. If I still had a commute (and they sold these in the US) I'd definitely buy one.

It gets you from A to B, it keeps you dry and warm/cool, it's cheap and it's easy to park. It's basically everything you want from a car in a European city.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com