Citroën Ami

Electric vehicles are everywhere these days, but few are as intriguing – or as polarizing – as the tiny urban EV soon headed to American roads. Fiat recently announced plans to bring its diminutive new model, the Topolino, to the US this year. At roughly the size of a golf cart and priced far below most traditional EVs, it is technically more of a quadricycle than a true ‘car’ and offers a radically different vision of personal mobility: ultra-compact, affordable, and perfectly tailored to short city commutes.

I don’t think it’s fair to call the Citroën Ami a “weird car.” Not because it isn’t weird, but rather because it isn’t a car. It’s technically considered to be a quadricycle, a type of vehicle classification in Europe that falls somewhere between a motorcycle and a standard car. That helps it thread the needle of low cost and low regulations while still offering much the feeling of an actual car. It may not have a dozen airbags like some cars (or even one airbag), but you weren’t planning on hitting anything anyway, right?

To test out one of these funny little microcars, last month I went to the Greek Isles and rented one. After my wife and I relied on it as our main form of transportation for a week, I got pretty good sense of what the Ami can and can’t do, and who it might be best suited for.

Back by popular demand, Citroen revealed a new version of the My Ami Buggy, an ultra-compact electric city car. The special edition EV will go on sale in ten countries for just over $13K (£10,495).