Citroen reimagines its Ami EV as an adorable off-road buggy
The My Ami Buggy has removable canvas doors, an LED light bar and knobby tires.
Going camping or hiking just got cuter thanks to a new Citroën concept car. The My Ami Buggy is based on the Ami we all know and love, but adds some practical and stylistic touches like wider knobby tires, an LED light bar and removable canvas doors.
The buggy is mainly a way for Citroën's designers to show off their chops by adding "stylish attributes to assert its intrepid and friendly backpacker personality," according to the company. As such, they drew inspiration from things like construction games, industrial design and fashion.
To be sure, it looks like your ten-year-old's idea of a buggy, assuming the kid had some design talent. The khaki, black and yellow color scheme is the first attention-grabbing feature, giving it an outdoorsy camouflage feel and yet high visibility.
Another key feature is the doors, or lack thereof. The regular ones have been replaced by removable canvas doors with zippers, bringing some much-needed air circulation and buggy allure. The knobbier and wider tires will let you take it onto rougher roads, as long as you remember that ground clearance isn't amazing. It also has headlight protectors and a spare knobby tire mounted on the roof that add a "spirit of adventure" and ratchet up the cuteness factor.
Other additions include an LED lightbar, removable "nomadic speaker," a roof cap to protect against the sun and a graphics package that includes the words "Pilot" and "01" on the driver's seat and "Copilot" and "02" on the passenger seat. It also offers thicker memory foam in the seats, new storage bins on the dashboard and even a range of luggage designed to "fit perfectly into the vehicle's interior spaces," according to Citroën. Other features like smartphone clamps, bottle holders and more were all built using 3D printing so that they can be reproduced on demand.
As a reminder, the Ami can hit a top speed of 28 MPH and go 44 miles on its 5.5 kWh battery. It's also legal for teenagers 14 and older to drive in France and elsewhere in Europe. The company's designers must have had a lot of fun with the My Ami Buggy concept, but there's no word yet on whether Citroën will ever build and sell it — though the kid in all of us certainly hopes so.
