We have the Citroën Ami here which is basically the same but goes 28mph which is fine for city use where the speed limit is often 20mph, being a light quadricycle it doesn't have to meet the same safety standards as a proper car.
It's meant to be a city car, you'd never be anywhere fast enough to get it up to 55mph. It'll get you to the grocery store and back, although the cargo space might need to be bigger if you're a Costco shopper...
It can't be a city car because many U.S. cities have surface streets with speeds of 40MPH. It can't even get me to my nearby grocery store because the road the grocery store parking lot opens onto is 45MPH. Many U.S. cities were cut up between the 1950s and the 1970s to allow through traffic by relocating state route highways and interstate highways into the cities. This had the knock-on effect of raising the speed limits of surface streets that connected to or surrounded those highways. The only places you'd be able to drive this thing without being a nuisance, a traffic hazard, or a focus for police attention would be the tiny portions of the cities that existed before the 1950s and were left untouched in the decades since. That pretty much rules out the midwest, the west coast, and anything on the east coast south of Virginia.
For what its worth, the average city speed limit in Canada is 50kmh... 40mph is 15kmh faster than that, our slowest "rural highway" or "regional road" is 80kmh (50mph).
In the US, something like 39% of the population lives in an urban environment with a population of 50,000 or larger. That means 61% live in smaller areas. In my city of approximately 55,000, it is hard to make do with not leaving the to go to surrounding towns and that almost always means speeds of 45-55mph.
I'm a little unclear on what cities in the US are large enough that most people wouldn't need a vehicle that can go faster (for the sake of being allowed on the needed roads), and yet would be a city where enough people would want their own car for use inside of the city instead of relying on foot/public transport.
I think that most likely a successful city car in the US would still need to be able to do a minimum of 45mph, and I could see arguments for 60mph or 70mph as the minimum instead. I could see getting away with all the driving I do in a typical month with something that couldn't do more than 45 though. 19mph is too slow for my typical week, unless it took the form of a cargo bike.
FIAT's an italian company and there definitely is a market for pure city driving in Italy, it's not huge but it's there, especially amongst younger folks.
Personally I don't think this car's particularly fit for the US market, it's not what it was designed for.
The gag is that they're bringing it over as a basic electric quadcycle to skirt all US regulations for the vehicle, then offering an immediate conversion at point of sale to equip it to be a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle / Low Speed Vehicle, so it'll actualy do closer to 25.
The kit adds "a rearview mirror, back up camera, pedestrian alert system and up to 25 mph top speed" later this year.
It's basically the modern Ford Th!nk / Polaris GEM.
We have the Citroën Ami here which is basically the same but goes 28mph which is fine for city use where the speed limit is often 20mph, being a light quadricycle it doesn't have to meet the same safety standards as a proper car.
Why does it look like a Citroën ami?
Edit: apparently stellantis owns Citroën... but so much for brand lines if they're just going to rebadge everything...
Too small and too slow.
I think there's some hidden demand for a small cheap car, but 19 MPH is indeed too slow. It needs to be able to go at least to slow highway speeds.
> needs to be able to go at least to slow highway speeds
More like in-town speeds. One of these that tops out around 40 mph has legs.
It’s also very expensive! In Australia a BYDAtto 1, which is a 5 seater full featured hatchback capable of normal speeds, is US$17,000.
A lot of people miss this but Atto 1 is only a four seater.
It's meant to be a city car, you'd never be anywhere fast enough to get it up to 55mph. It'll get you to the grocery store and back, although the cargo space might need to be bigger if you're a Costco shopper...
It can't be a city car because many U.S. cities have surface streets with speeds of 40MPH. It can't even get me to my nearby grocery store because the road the grocery store parking lot opens onto is 45MPH. Many U.S. cities were cut up between the 1950s and the 1970s to allow through traffic by relocating state route highways and interstate highways into the cities. This had the knock-on effect of raising the speed limits of surface streets that connected to or surrounded those highways. The only places you'd be able to drive this thing without being a nuisance, a traffic hazard, or a focus for police attention would be the tiny portions of the cities that existed before the 1950s and were left untouched in the decades since. That pretty much rules out the midwest, the west coast, and anything on the east coast south of Virginia.
> many U.S. cities have surface streets with speeds of 40MPH
In actual cities traffic rarely gets that fast. 20 mph is fine in the top 10 metropolitan regions if one is sticking to the core.
For what its worth, the average city speed limit in Canada is 50kmh... 40mph is 15kmh faster than that, our slowest "rural highway" or "regional road" is 80kmh (50mph).
In the US, something like 39% of the population lives in an urban environment with a population of 50,000 or larger. That means 61% live in smaller areas. In my city of approximately 55,000, it is hard to make do with not leaving the to go to surrounding towns and that almost always means speeds of 45-55mph.
I'm a little unclear on what cities in the US are large enough that most people wouldn't need a vehicle that can go faster (for the sake of being allowed on the needed roads), and yet would be a city where enough people would want their own car for use inside of the city instead of relying on foot/public transport.
I think that most likely a successful city car in the US would still need to be able to do a minimum of 45mph, and I could see arguments for 60mph or 70mph as the minimum instead. I could see getting away with all the driving I do in a typical month with something that couldn't do more than 45 though. 19mph is too slow for my typical week, unless it took the form of a cargo bike.
Idk how big of a market pure city driving would be; I imagine most city traffic sources from the suburbs
Unless this is meant for like taxis, similar to auto-rickshaws in Southeast Asia. Or maybe short distance car rentals like zipcar?
FIAT's an italian company and there definitely is a market for pure city driving in Italy, it's not huge but it's there, especially amongst younger folks. Personally I don't think this car's particularly fit for the US market, it's not what it was designed for.
Yeah but there are golf carts that go bigger and faster than this car. At about the same price.
The gag is that they're bringing it over as a basic electric quadcycle to skirt all US regulations for the vehicle, then offering an immediate conversion at point of sale to equip it to be a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle / Low Speed Vehicle, so it'll actualy do closer to 25.
The kit adds "a rearview mirror, back up camera, pedestrian alert system and up to 25 mph top speed" later this year.
It's basically the modern Ford Th!nk / Polaris GEM.
So stupid. 19 mph top speed. Might as well buy one of those lime electric scooters. $14,000 is bonkers for this toy.