Back in early 2019, Citroën shared a vision for inner city micromobility with the very boxy Ami One electric concept. The tiny two-seater was launched in Europe last year and now it's being joined by the My Ami Cargo, an electric microvan for small businesses.
"My Ami Cargo offers an ingenious solution to the new challenges of professionals who are expressing a need to carry goods in a vehicle that is clever, functional, electric and economical," said Citroën's Laurence Hansen. "It features a convenient and modular cargo volume, while offering an electric mobility solution that is agile, safe and unique. It’s a vehicle that provides a concrete solution for last-mile delivery, particularly of small packages, the volume of which has increased exponentially in recent months."
The My Ami Cargo measures just 2.41 m (7.9 ft) long, 1.39 m (4.5 ft) wide and 1.52 m (4.9 ft) high, and like the original Ami it offers a turning circle of just 7.2 m (23.6 ft). But where that vehicle could squeeze two inside, the microvan variant seats the driver only.
The passenger space has been given over to a modular polypropylene box that's reported capable of stowing away 260 liters (9.2 ft3) of cargo. A partition separates the driver area from the cargo area, with a hollowed out shape designed to allow for unobstructed operation of the handbrake.
The top of the box sits below the "passenger" window so the driver can still benefit from 360° views around the vehicle, and to serve as a mobile desk of sorts with a rectangular cutout for holding documents, an order book or even a tablet. The flat floor on the cargo side can be adjusted to two levels, and there's a closed storage box for secure items to the rear. All in, the My Ami Cargo has a usable volume of 400 liters (14 ft3) at up to 140 kg (308 lb).
That's not going to be enough to tempt UPS or DHL couriers to jump aboard, but it could be just the ticket for a small business looking for a relatively cheap way to run a few packages to local customers.
Useful accessories are also going to be available, including a holding net for the cargo side (so packages don't fall out onto the street when the door is opened), a smartphone clip and connectivity dongle, and dividers for creating storage compartments.
Like the original Ami, the Cargo edition is not classed as an electric car but a light quadricycle. It can be driven by folks as young as 14 in France (with a basic road safety certificate under their belts) or 16 year olds (without a license) in the rest of the EU. It has a teeny 5.5-kWh Li-ion battery that can be juiced up in just three hours using a domestic (220-V) socket, and Citroën reckons that it should be good for up to 75 km (46.6 miles) per charge. Its 6-kW motor tops out at 45 km/h (28 mph).
Citroën is looking to start sales in early June, with the My Ami Cargo priced at €6,490. That's about US$7,830 by direct conversion but this looks to be a France-only last-mile cargo-hauling solution for the moment – though given that car-sharing company Free2Move recently announced in a LinkedIn post that it was taking five of the original ultra-compact Ami EVs to Washington for pilot testing, maybe the My Ami Cargo could also find its way to the US in the future.
Source: Citroën