Citroen Ami Review 2024

The Citroen Ami is probably the most back-to-basics electric vehicle you can buy. It's actually a quadricycle, rather than a car, which means it's limited to a top speed of 28mph and you can drive it in the UK from the age of 16. It's a bit rubbish in many ways but, like a Reliant Robin or Suzuki Jimny, its charm and personality will win over the harshest of critics.

First and foremost, the Citroen Ami has been designed to be cheap. We mean genuinely affordable - not a £30,000 entry-level electric car. That means it's built in Morocco and has a quirky symmetrical body. The front and rear are the same, while the doors open in opposite directions.

It's also only available with the steering wheel on the left but, as the Ami is so small, that doesn't make a huge difference. There's little in the way of equipment - you don't get a radio, for example, while split-screen windows flip open like those on an old-fashioned bus. Want to adjust the mirrors? Reach out and do it yourself.

The Citroen Ami comes with just two seats (side-by-side, which differs from the Renault Twizy) and you even get a roof and windows as standard. You don't get a great deal else bar a basic heater, but what more do you need? A radio..? No, but Citroen will offer a Bluetooth speaker and a phone mount for the dashboard.

Jumping into the Citroen Ami feels a bit like getting into a theme park ride. The firm, plastic seats offer little in the way of comfort or adjustment, while you're not going to cause a lot of damage by cleaning the interior with a hosepipe.

The Citroen Ami is started using a key, while there are awkwardly-placed buttons to make it go forwards or backwards. It's amusing to drive, although its lack of power-assisted steering might be a shock to the system for those of us who learnt to drive within the last 20 years.

There's not a great deal of safety kit, either. You don't get airbags or ABS brakes and we hate to imagine how it'd come off in a fight with an articulated lorry. But, at least with a 28mph top speed, you're unlikely to get into too much trouble. You also get more protection than you would on a motorbike (or even a push bike), which is probably the best way to put the Ami into context.

The Citroen Ami wouldn't be a huge amount of fun on a national speed limit road, but it's hilarious around town. Its cheeky character means people will turn a blind eye as you nip in and out of traffic, while its diddy turning circle means you can pull off a quick 360-degree turn as soon as you hit congestion. It's staggeringly unrefined for an electric car, while the firm ride reminds us of how we'd imagine it'd feel to ride downhill in a supermarket trolley.

Don't necessarily dismiss the Citroen Ami as just an urban runaround. While its core market is city-dwelling millennials, we've heard tales of buyers who want something halfway between a mobility scooter and a car - it's ideal for popping to the shop at the end of the village (provided you don't need to go beyond the 30mph zone).

Charging is easy, taking around three hours using a regular three-pin socket. It'll be extremely cheap to run, costing less than a couple of quid to fully charge (even with today's rapidly increasing energy rates). You can buy the Ami online at a cost of around £8000, while high demand means we suspect used prices will be strong for a while yet.

The Citroen Ami isn't the most sophisticated vehicle in terms of driving dynamics, but it gets the essentials right for an about-town runaround. One thing it's missing is power steering but, provided you're not wanting to turn from lock to lock at a standstill, that shouldn't pose an issue.

Its 7.2-metre turning circle is pretty good, although there are electric cars that can turn in a slightly tighter space (the Smart EQ Fortwo for one). The Ami can't really go fast enough to find its limits... its little wheels certainly seemed to provide an ample amount of grip during our London-based test drive.

The ride quality is pretty dire - it'll crash over bumpy road surfaces. But you soon learn to look ahead and swerve around potholes (the Ami's compact dimensions mean you usually have quite a lot of road to play with).

Once you get used to the crashiness of the suspension (and the general lack of refinement in general), the Ami is actually really fun to drive. It'll fit through tiny gaps in traffic and other drivers are generally so bemused by the Ami that they're not going to get irritated by some assertive lane changes.

Power comes from an 8PS (no, we haven't missed a digit out) electric motor powered by a small 5.5kWh battery pack. Top speed is limited to just 28mph - a figure that's regulated by European rules for quadricycles, so don't expect a more powerful Citroen Ami to hit the market any time soon.

It actually feels pretty darty around town. It weighs less than 500kg after all, while the instant response from its electric motor means it'll hit top speed in around 10 seconds.

The Citroen Ami is started via a key, while there are three buttons to the left of the driver's seat for selecting drive, neutral and reverse. Unlike most electric cars (or even automatic combustion-engined models, for that matter), the Citroen Ami doesn't have a built-in creep function. That means it won't start moving forwards as soon as you lift off the brake, while you'll have to use the handbrake to prevent it rolling backwards on a hill.

Unusually for a new car in 2022, the Citroen Ami doesn't come with a long list of safety features of driver-assistance tech. That's the whole quadricycle thing again - it's actually exempt from official Euro NCAP crash tests. We doubt it'd stand up well in a head-on collision with an artic truck but, if you're only using it in the city, that might not be a big concern.

You don't get anti-lock brakes, airbags or crumple zones. There aren't any parking sensors and Citroen's even scrimped on the mirrors. There's no rear-view mirror inside the Ami - just two pathetic little hand-adjustable door mirrors. Fortunately the Ami's very small and the windows are relatively big, so you can just glance over your shoulder ahead of direction changes.

We reckon the Citroen Ami will feel pretty intimidating on roads with a speed limit of more than 30mph - and don't even think about taking in the motorway; doing so is illegal. But remember it's very much a form of urban transport... which would you feel safer cutting through traffic in, an Ami or a push bike?

The Citroen Ami is essentially a small box on wheels, so it's actually surprisingly spacious inside. You can adjust the driver's seat (the passenger seat is fixed) and we reckon all but the tallest of drivers should be able to find a suitable driving position. It is strictly a two-seater, but at least you sit side-by-side with your passenger rather than one-behind-the-other.

There isn't a boot as such, but you can cram a few things behind the seats. The biggest cargo-carrying area is the passenger footwell, which can accommodate up to 63 litres of luggage. If you need more space, the Citroen Ami Cargo gets rid of the passenger seat entirely and can carry up to 400 litres of your prized possessions. This also adds a useful cargo shelf that slots across the space where your passenger would usually sit - ideal for loading more items or even using it as a mobile desk.

You don't get a conventional glove box or door bins in the Ami, although opt for one of the colour packs and you get a few hand stowage areas including a phone holder on the dashboard shelf and some luggage nets inside the doors.

There's no such decadence as air-conditioning either, but you do get a single-speed fan heater that, given the noise it kicks out, likely doubles as a pub bathroom hand dryer. It's only really useful to demist the windscreen but it will eventually heat the cabin up. 

The Citroen Ami has been designed with urban hire fleets in mind so the interior is functional rather than plush. The amount of hard plastics wouldn't look out of place in a 1980s Lada, it really is that utilitarian, but at least they don't feel particularly flimsy. Citroen makes some of the most comfortable cars on the market but it hasn't extended that expertise to the Ami - even the seats look like they're lifted out of a bus or an old school hall, with very little in the way of padding or support for longer journeys.

Fitting a fancy infotainment system to the Citroen Ami would add a considerable chunk of cost and complexity. Instead, you can get a phone holder which fits onto the dashboard and download an app which connects to an (optional) dongle and a shortcut button on the steering wheel.

The Ami doesn't even come with speakers. Instead, you can buy a Bluetooth speaker which slots neatly into a cupholder on the dashboard. It's not the last word in in-car entertainment and, to be honest, you might find that headphones do a better job of drowning out noise from outside the Ami's cabin.

The Citroen Ami starts from £7695, which makes it one of the cheapest electric cars you can buy. Or it would, if it was actually a car. But as a mode of transport, less than £8000 for a brand new two-seat electric vehicle with shelter and warmth seems reasonable.

There are a few special edition models available, including the Citroen Ami Pop, Tonic and Vibe. These add some extra personality in the form of colour packs as well as decals, decorative roof rails and even (on the Ami Pop) a not-really-necessary roof spoiler. Even on these, though, standard equipment is a little lacking. You'll pay extra for a Bluetooth speaker and don't expect such luxuries as electric windows or heated seats.

Justifying the Ami gets even more difficult when you consider how much secondhand Volkswagen Up or Kia Picanto you can get for £8000. Sure, it'll be a few years old, but you're not going to cause a pile-up if you drive a small petrol city car on the motorway.

While Citroen dealers will be able to provide test drives in the Ami, you'll need to go online to place an order for one. Citroen has Ami experts on hand to answer any questions you may have, while you can use Citroen's online finance calculator to work out how much the Ami might cost each month.

Even by electric car standards, the Citroen Ami should be very cheap to run. That's mainly because it has a tiny 5.5kWh battery - check how much your home electricity tariff is, but you should be able to charge the Ami for a couple of quid at most. You can do this by plugging it into a three-pin socket, just like you'd charge your smartphone. It'll take around three hours for a full charge.

The Citroen Ami comes with a charging adapter that you can use when you're out and about. This'll be a little more expensive and won't be any quicker than charging at home, but at least it means you shouldn't get stranded. Officially the Citroen Ami can travel 47 miles between charges. In our experience, at a top speed of 28mph, that's plenty.

Charging and electricity costs aside, the Citroen Ami isn't going to break the bank. It's exempt from VED (vehicle excise duty - road tax) as well as the London Congestion Charge and ULEZ. Maintenance costs will be low (there's very little to go wrong) and Citroen provides a warranty of three years/25,000 miles for the battery pack.

The standard Citroen Ami comes with two seats with soft-touch padding and integrated head restraints, longitudinal adjustment for the driver's seat, a digital speedometer, a USB charging port and a ventilation fan with heater. There's a panoramic sunroof as standard, folding side windows and two manually-adjustable door mirrors. The Citroen Ami also comes with LED front headlights and rear lights, LED indicators, a front windscreen wash/wipe and a type 2 charging cable.

The Citroen Ami Pop adds the orange colour pack, black front bumper trim, black rear light surrounds, a black rear roof spoiler and two decals surrounding the door capsules.

The Citroen Ami Tonic features an exclusive Khaki colour pack with yellow highlights, black trim at the top of the front bumper with yellow decals, black light surrounds, two decorative roof rails and two decals surrounding the door capsules in khaki and yellow.

The Citroen Ami Vibe comes with a grey colour pack, black exterior trim, two decorative roof rails, 'contour' decals on the side doors and front wings and black wheel arches.