After pining after Hyundai’s evil (in a good way) EV retro concept, a new concept vehicle has come to steal my heart from a company I can’t say I’ve heard of before. It’s the Citroën My Ami Buggy, a tiny battery-powered vehicle that looks like a smart car got really into backpacking, mountain-biking, or any number of fun weekend activities (shout out to Engadget for bringing this into my life).
Citroën says in its press release that the buggy is designed to be playful, something “that every child from the age of 14 to 77 would want to add to their Christmas list,” and says it took inspiration from “non-automotive worlds such as construction games, industrial design and fashion.” I can actually buy fashion — the roof-mounted spare tire is reminiscent of a jauntily tossed beret. Although I also can’t help but see it as a bulked-up version of one of those John Deere Gator utility trucks.
Citroën has many, many words to describe the car’s design, waxing lyrical about the removable and rollable zippered canvas doors, the “+” badge meant to signify the buggy’s EV-ness, and the black, yellow, and khaki color scheme meant to remind you of camping equipment. If I had any hope of this car becoming an actual thing you could buy (like a sort of chic version of the Subaru Outback Adventure), I might recommend reading all of it — but you’ll mostly get the vibe by watching the minute-long demo reel the company made for it.
The My Ami Buggy is based on Citroën’s Ami, which is a city-focused EV that has an 8-horsepower motor, a top speed of 28 MPH, and just a touch over 40 miles of range, according to Engadget. (That vehicle started out as a concept itself, so maybe there’s hope that I’ll get a buggy after all!)
The Ami seems like it’s made to be rented out for short bursts of time like a Lime scooter, rather than something you’d want to go on road trips with or take on an off-road adventure. But if you make a concept and call it a buggy, I’m going to want to see someone try and send it up a sand dune, like that one video every Subaru owner shows to their friends to prove they don’t need some lifted pickup (that probably couldn’t make it up the hill anyway).
Who knows if it could actually do it, but it’s fun to think of all the tiny adventures you could go on with this sort of thing. How would you actually get it to the great outdoors without making a dozen charging stops? That’s the type of logical question better suited for Mondays. It’s the weekend — we’re dreaming of driving down to the river with some inflatable tubes in the back of the buggy or (perhaps more seasonably) strapping an apartment-sized Christmas tree that we cut down ourselves to the top.
Oh, and PS: as far as I can tell, the name My Ami isn’t a pun on Miami. If you have information to the contrary, though, please let me know (though I think I’d probably just be confused).
