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Driving Citroen's pint-sized Ami EV is as fun as it looks
Citroen's tiny, adorable EV is no race car but it's extremely fun to use.
Citroen’s futuristic autonomous EV concept is designed for long trips
Last February, Citroen introduced its Ami One, a tiny electric vehicle (EV) meant to replace bikes and scooters. It was envisioned as a way to make short, all-electric trips around downtown areas. Now, Citroen has revealed its 19_19 Concept, an EV for customers who want to travel beyond the city's limits. The 19_19 Concept boasts a range of up to 800 km (about 497 miles), and thanks to its autonomous driving tech, "drivers are able to entirely delegate driving."
Citroen's tiny EV concept is an alternative to bikes and scooters
Many automakers are designing vehicles for an era beyond car ownership, but Citroen is taking things one step further: it's envisioning a car that you'd use in place of bikes and scooters. Its newly introduced Ami One Concept is a compact (8.2ft long), all-electric "urban mobility object" that you'd use for short hops around downtown areas. The two-seater would have just a 62-mile range and a 28MPH top speed, but it would be easy to access and drive with a QR code on the handle replacing a key. You wouldn't even need a driver's license in some countries, Citroen said.
Citroen's DS shows off its mainstream crossover EV
You may have never seen Citroen's DS 3, but it's one of the most popular cars in Europe. When the company (actually a new, separate brand called DS) unveiled a crossover version called the DS 3 Crossback, it also announced plans to sell an electric version called the DS 3 Crossback E-Tense.
Citroen's hybrid concept car gets 115 mpg from thin air (hands-on)
With the Cactus Airflow 2L, Citroen thinks it's found a way to bring the cost of hybrid technology down to earth using nothing but air. Based on a production Cactus model, the natty, low-roofed concept car has a unique hybrid compressed air/gas engine at its core. In a regular hybrid, batteries store energy from braking and coasting downhill. It's the same idea here, but instead of storing electricity, the Airflow 2L compresses air and stocks it in a tank. It can then be released when needed, powering the car during wasteful acceleration or city driving. While that may sound wonky, the system has been tested to an rather astonishing 115 mpg or so. Still, why bother with an untested system when existing hybrid drivetrains are so mature?
Antistatic E-3POD concept wins Citroen design award, job for its student creator
Who says dreaming doesn't pay? A young designer by the name of Heikki Juvonen recently won himself a six-month job placement at Citroen's PSA Design Centre in Paris after producing the most compelling response to the company's Double Challenge set to students at London's Royal College of Art. The premise was simple -- put together an aesthetic for an ultra-compact urban vehicle that Citroen could call its own, and judging by the imagery above, we can all probably agree that Heikki achieved a very distinctive look with his E-3POD. We're not yet certain how we feel about being inside the largest of the three wheels for the duration of our electrically powered journeys, but the young gent has half a year on his hands to tweak and refine his eye-catching design. We'll be ready to test-drive the prototype as soon as Citroen becomes mad enough to build one.
BMW and PSA Peugeot Citroen partner for future hybrid tech, put that Great War thing behind them
The last century saw no shortage of disputes between the French and the Germans, but in this century everything's going to be totally cool. BMW and PSA Peugeot Citroën, the company that quite naturally owns the Peugeot and Citroën marques, have come to form a partnership focused on the creation of advanced hybrid systems. The name for this new partnership? BMW Peugeot Citroën Electrification, quite naturally. The fruit of this holy union will be better battery packs, generators, and electronics that will not only help the manufacturers that have joined together here, but will also be sold to other manufacturers who need a little help from their friends. We'll have to wait a little while before we see any results, though: actual components aren't expected to hit the road until 2014 at the earliest -- coincidently about 100 years since things got awfully testy at Alsace-Lorraine.
British government confirms nine EVs eligible for £5,000 rebates, but there are really only six
Buy an electric vehicle in the US, like the Nissan Leaf, and you can expect to get a nice boost to your tax refund: a $7,500 federal subsidy. Now the UK is getting in on the cash back game, with a programme program starting on January 1st to offer a 25 percent discount on EVs purchased -- up to a maximum of £5,000. Nine cars have been declared eligible for this decidedly choice bonus: Mitsubishi i-MiEV Peugeot iOn Citroen C-Zero Smart fourtwo electric drive Nissan Leaf Tata Vista Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Vauxhall Ampera Chevrolet Volt Sure, the first three and the last two cars are effectively the same models, just with different bits of chrome stuck on the front, but a little badge engineering never hurt anybody.
MeeGo becomes infotainment operating system of choice for BMW, GM, Hyundai and more
It's getting to the point where it's not terribly easy to keep track of all the in-car entertainment initiatives our wondrous connected future has in store, but here's two names you'll want to remember: GENIVI and MeeGo. The former is an industry alliance that now includes automakers GM, BMW, Hyundai and Peugeot Citroen alongside the likes of ARM, NVIDIA, Nokia and Intel, and MeeGo is the Linux-based OS that they've just decided will soon be powering our cars. Don't expect this to affect your daily drive anytime soon, but in the long run we wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Moblin-Maemo base underpins future revisions of Terminal Mode and OnStar.
Citroen concept car gets driven around UK, impresses Londoners
French car maker Citroën drove its "GTbyCitroën" concept car from the perpetually "coming soon" Gran Turismo 5 around London streets recently. It toured the the real-life version of a street track from the game and, wouldn't you know it, people everywhere were going nuts. Busting out cameras, mouths agape staring while the car rumbled past -- it's as if they'd never seen such a purty car before. Oh right! That's because they haven't ever seen the car before, because it's still a concept, unveiled at last year's Paris Auto Show as a collaboration between Polyphony Digital and Citroën. We have the full video after the break, but as you might imagine, it's not exactly nailing apexes and drafting opponents so much as slowly winding around pedestrian-filled British streets. With any luck, we'll have a more ... erm ... action-oriented video of the car soon for your viewing pleasure, as it'll be making an appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this coming weekend.
Buy a $43K Citroen SUV, get a free PSP Slim
Europeans who are in the market for both a new SUV and a PSP Slim are in luck, because Citroen and Sony have teamed up to offer a (not all that) special vehicle deal.Behold: the Citroen C-Crosser Exclusive PSP Edition. This PlayStation Portable branded SUV comes packed with Xenon headlamps, air conditioning (hasn't that become a standard feature?), Bluetooth support, a NaviDrive navigation system and black PSP decals plastered all over the exterior. Purchasers will also receive a black PSP Slim, a couple of games, a 4GB Memory Stick and a PSP headrest mount. All that and the envy of a handful of Citroen enthusiasts for only €33,990 ($43,340).Honestly, for that price and in this economy, we'd only think about purchasing this vehicle if it could dance like this Citroen. The free PSP would also be required, of course.[Via Engadget]
Citroen announces C-Crosser Exclusive PSP Edition SUV
Not a ton of details to go on here, but it looks like Citroen and Sony are set to team up on a PSP-themed version of the C-Crosser SUV. The C-Crosser Exclusive PSP Edition will come with a black PSP Slim, two games, a 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, and a special headrest speaker mount so rear-seat passengers can catch up on some awesome UMD movies. Europe-only, obviously, and those stickers won't come cheap -- prices start at €33,990 ($43,340.) A few more pics at the read link.[Via Edmunds]
Recycled Citron parts used to create fire-breathing robo dog
There's something about fire-breathing robots that just gets us giddy, so you can imagine our joy when finding one that gallops, too. The hand-built robot dog -- cutely coined LRRY-1 (pronounced Larry, we'll have you know) -- was built almost entirely from unwanted Citroën scraps, and not a single ounce of non-recycled material was used in the final construction. No idea if it's technically street legal, but we'd love to see a traffic warden try to get this thing back in its cage. Video is posted after the break.[Via BoingBoing]
Bosch unveils parking space measurement system
While Toyota already has its self-parking Prius on the streets, and Volkswagen (not to mention BMW and Honda) isn't too far behind, Citroën is joining the fold thanks to a newly-unveiled system developed by Bosch. Citing the C4 Picasso as the "world's first car to feature integrated parking space measurement," Bosch apparently hopes to get its own snazzy parking assistant on more rides in the future. The system utilizes six total sensors on the front / rear of the vehicle to gauge parking space dimesntions (and alert you of obstacles) while cruising by at up to 12.5-miles per hour, and can inform the driver if the space he / she is eying is too small, "a tight squeeze," or just right. The system initiates the measuring process when the motorist tags a button on their steering wheel, and looks to the right or left depending on which turn signal is in use. While not quite as advanced as Toyota's gig, Bosch hopes to upgrade its system to allow the vehicle itself to control the maneuvering sometime in 2008, but those not able to hold out can pick up the current rendition real soon.[Via Gizmag]
