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By Jonathan Crouch

There's still nothing quite like a Citroen Ami. Jonathan Crouch takes a look at the improved version.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 71

In this smartly updated form, Citroen's Ami continues to offer a charismatic urban mobility solution for our cities, its quadricycle format allowing it to be cheap, simple and fun. It's still left hand drive-only, there's no boot, only two seats and it only goes 43 miles on each electric charge at a maximum of 28mph. But you might still enjoy driving one of these more than any car you've ever owned.

Backgroundword count: 188

The Ami was Citroen's surprise hit of 2020, a quadricycle for city use that's gone on to find 65,000 customers who appreciate an old school, quirky, individualistic Citroen. That success has attracted a flock of would-be rivals to the quadricycle segment, like the Silence S04, the XEV Yoyo and the Micro Microlino Lite. It's the appearance of that competition that's prompted the French maker to introduce this update, which has given the car a dose of 2CV-style visual charisma. As before, you can have it in fixed-top or 'Cargo' van forms - and Citroen has signalled its intention to once again bring us an open-topped 'Buggy' version of this updated model, some time in its production run. Also as before, UK customers have to put up with the fact that this model remains left hand drive-only, though because it's so small, that hardly matters. Don't think of it as an alternative to a city car. Instead, it's a better seen as a nicer option than public transport. Or walking. And on the Continent, it can cost less to lease one than your monthly mobile phone contract. Interested yet?

Driving Experienceword count: 211

Nothing's changed with this updated Ami in terms of the powertrain or drive dynamics. It's electric of course. There wouldn't be much point if it wasn't. But it's got a far smaller battery (5.5kWh) than you'll find in any EV. Still, because the electric motor it's mated to develops only 8bhp, hence the feeble 28 mph top speed, you won't drain the cells very quickly and a (very achievable) range of 43 urban miles is possible. As before, you can drive an Ami on a moped licence - and at an age as young as 16 (in France and Italy, it's 14). As you'd expect from the diminutive size, the turning circle is outstanding - just 7.2m. To give you a point of comparison, that of a typical supermini is over 10m. A London taxi is rated at 7.6m. The elevated driving position and superb all-round visibility also help in the city and though there's no power steering to ease you into spaces, the vehicle is so light (a typical supermini weighs around 600kgs more) that it isn't really an issue. Still, you might well feel intimidated by trucks and buses, particularly as quadricycles like this don't get rigorously crash tested and don't have to have airbags and camera safety aids.

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