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I don’t think it’s fair to call the Citroën Ami a “weird car.” Not because it isn’t weird, but rather because it isn’t a car. It’s technically considered to be a quadricycle, a type of vehicle classification in Europe that falls somewhere between a motorcycle and a standard car. That helps it thread the needle of low cost and low regulations while still offering much the feeling of an actual car. It may not have a dozen airbags like some cars (or even one airbag), but you weren’t planning on hitting anything anyway, right?

To test out one of these funny little microcars, last month I went to the Greek Isles and rented one. After my wife and I relied on it as our main form of transportation for a week, I got pretty good sense of what the Ami can and can’t do, and who it might be best suited for.

Now let’s get the major questions out of the way right up front. You want to know how far, how fast, and how much, right?

Basically, this tiny car can go 75 km (47 miles) on a charge, is software limited to 28 mph (45 km/h), and costs somewhere around €7,400 depending on the country, which is around US $8,000.

If you’re still with me, awesome. You’re about to see a really cool little vehicle. If you stopped reading after the specs, well, then how are you still here? Ha, I caught you! Stick around, this thing is really cool. Trust me. In fact, you can check out the video below to see my testing experience and thoughts on this odd little vehicle.

So obviously the Citroën Ami is not a powerhouse of a car. But it’s not meant to be.

Instead, it’s designed for purely city and local driving needs. It’s for the kind of person that likes the idea of a Vespa, but wants to be able to carry a bunch of groceries, bring a friend along, or just doesn’t want to get rained on.

I’m very much a bicycle/scooter/motorcycle kind of guy, and you’ll rarely find me reviewing four-wheeled vehicles. But microcars are that fun little overlap where we can say, “Sure, sometimes you want a box around you, but you don’t want to take up more space than you need, either.”

That’s kind of the beauty of the Citroën Ami. Weaving through the tiny Greek roads was easy. Parking into spots that weren’t really parking spots but are too small for a “real” car, well, that’s easy too. Or at least it is after a couple days. In the beginning I kept thinking I was closer to bumping parking signs and other cars than I really was. I’d get out and look, sure that I was kissing it, when I really had another 50 cm (nearly 2 feet) left. You don’t realize how close you are to the front and back of the car, but you can just about reach out and touch both.

That’s really the winning feature of the Ami, is that it is small. It’s easy to drive since there isn’t more vehicle than you need. It’s easy to park. It’s easy to squeeze past other cars, at least to an extent.

The downsides though are similar to many “real” cars, in that you’re still getting stuck in traffic when the shoulder isn’t wide enough to squeeze past, and you’re still left searching for parking instead of being like a bike and motorcycle where you can basically park anywhere. Both of those were occasionally frustrating, especially for someone that is used to seeing any area the size of my body and parking my two-wheeler there.

Is the Citroën Ami powerful enough?

It doesn’t look like a very big car, and at 458 kg (1,009 pounds), it isn’t very heavy either. But that means the little 6 kW (8 hp) electric motor doesn’t have to work too hard either.

The little guy is actually decently torquey, and I could occasionally spin the tires on dusty roads when pulling out of an intersection.

I even took it on the winding mountain road up to Ancient Thera, a daunting climb with 22 switchbacks and a distinct lack of guardrails. My wife didn’t join me on that little excursion since she didn’t think the Ami would actually make it. I didn’t fight her too hard – if I didn’t survive then someone would have to go home and feed the dog.

Lo and behold, that little buggy wound it’s way up that mountain road like it was born for it! The cobblestone road was pretty bumpy, and at one point I think I started driving up a pedestrian path and then had to back down at a crazy angle while trying not to lose traction and slide off the side of the mountain, but despite those few hairy moments it was largely a success. So the Ami might not be fast, but it sure can climb mountains.

And now that I mention it, the little car can be faster than you’d think. I actually got it up to 73 km/h (45 mph) at one point – that story is coming up further down in this article.

It’s strange that there aren’t any reverse lights

Not a lot of creature comforts

As much fun as the Citroën Ami is to drive, as if it’s a little go-kart on the road, it’s not exactly the most fully featured. In fact, I’d wager that it shares its seats and accessory list with a go-kart too.

There’s minimal padding on the seats, though the driver side is decently adjustable forward and backward. There’s no radio, speakers, or air conditioning, but you do get a fan and a USB-A charging port.

There’s also not much storage, at least not in the conventional sense. There’s no trunk, but there is space behind the driver’s seat for a (very) small backpack. The amount of storage space there is inversely proportional to the length of the driver’s legs, as in it grows when the driver’s seat slides forward. Most of the storage is at the feet of the passenger, since their seat is offset further toward the rear of the vehicle. There’s a cutout there for trolley-style luggage, which we used and can confirm fits one typical carry-on bag. Then there’s the whole open area at the passenger’s feet where we’d toss a couple backpacks. There’s also a weirdly large amount of storage space above the dashboard in a set of three cutouts, and we’d often store water bottles or my wife’s purse up there.

The suspension is adequate but not the stuff of your dreams, though it handled some off-roading when the GPS inexplicably directed us onto a donkey road – see below. It’s definitely not the most comfortable suspension though, and otherwise the car feels quite basic. And that makes sense, since it was designed to be super-cheap to produce. That’s also why the front and rear are nearly identical except for the LED light colors. They share the same mold to cut down on cast. The doors are identical as well, which explains why the driver’s side has a suicide door. It’s the same thing as the passenger door and so they only have to have one set of door molds.

Other notes to frugality include the lack of conventional door handles. To open the door, you simply push the lock from the outside (no power locks) or pull a ribbon from the inside.

Charging the Citroën Ami can be an issue

The Citroën Ami was a lot of fun for us to use, despite its simple design and modest power. But the major issue for us was simply charging. I had checked in advance to ensure the island had several electric car charging stations, and it did. But when I arrived and picked up the Ami, I realized that didn’t matter since the car could only charge from a wall outlet, not from Level 2 public chargers.

There’s literally an electrical cable coming out of a hole in the door frame on the passenger side that lets the car plug in just like a toaster or electric kettle. It’s pretty funny the first time you see it.

The upside is that the small 5.5 kWh battery charges in 3 hours from empty or closer to 1.5 hours during typical charging stops with around half of the battery left. The problem for us was that we were staying at a hotel that didn’t have a garage with an outlet we could use to charge. It didn’t even have a garage, but rather a dirt parking lot outdoors.

That meant that we had to find our own charging solution on the go. Fortunately there is a single charging station on the entire island of Santorini with a wall outlet (and it also has a Level 2 charge outlet). It was installed by a lamp store who told me they put it in to attract more customers. If you’re ever visiting, go buy a lamp from them, they deserve it. We charged there several times, but also found charging at a Chinese restaurant, on a sidewalk, and by running an extension cord out of the hotel lobby a few times. Check it out in the video above.

If you own an Ami and have your own garage or other place to park that has an outlet available, you’ll never have to worry about it. I doubt you’ll ever go more than 75 km in a day. If we could have charged in a hotel garage, this wouldn’t have been an issue. But if you’re an apartment dweller or otherwise don’t have a charging location, this could be a hurdle. One solution would be to use an adapter for typical charging stations, though it’s not an ideal solution.

The only electric vehicle charging station with a Level 1 plug in all of Santorini

One note on charging: like many electric vehicles, the Citroën Ami doesn’t have regenerative braking when the battery is full. It’s a safety feature to prevent someone from overcharging the battery if going down a hill right after charging.

Which is what I did once, and accidentally discovered that the Ami can get up to at least 73 km/h (45 mph) on a downhill when regeneration is disabled. With nothing to prevent the motor from freewheeling, I was grinning ear to ear while racing down a long straight road for the coast, racking up an ever higher number on the tiny dashboard.

Normally the motor would enter regen after surpassing 45 km/h, even on a downhill. Until then, my highest score on a downhill had been 47 km/h. But if you ever have the chance of charging at the top of a big hill, you can try to beat my all-time best of 73 km/h!

citroen ami electric quadricycle

In summary, I would totally buy one

Even as someone who much prefers to be on a two-wheeler, I would buy a Citroën Ami if it was available in my country. It’d be good for those times when I just need to use a car for something.

My 33 kg (72 lb.) dog doesn’t fit on my e-bike, my wife doesn’t always want to ride on my scooter, and sometimes it’s raining like crazy and I don’t feel like riding. A tiny, low-cost car-like vehicle such as this would solve those types of problems. And when I’m not using it, it doesn’t take up more space than it needs to.

But alas, Citroën hasn’t brought the Ami to my country, and so I’ll have to be content with this experience of renting one. Which by the way, I got mine from Pyrgo on Santorini, and I’d definitely recommend it if you ever visit the island. And I’m not just saying that so they hopefully won’t charge my credit card extra when they see the donkey road I took it on and that I didn’t register my wife as a second driver.

It was definitely fun as a vacation rental, but I wish I saw more of them on the roads everyday replacing oversized cars in cities.

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91% of renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels, but Trump just defunded a vital US grid upgrade

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91% of renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels, but Trump just defunded a vital US grid upgrade

Renewables continued to dominate fossil fuels on price in 2024, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The big takeaway: Clean energy is the cheapest power around – by a wide margin. So it’s pretty bad business that the biggest grid upgrade project in US history just got kneecapped by Trump’s Department of Energy to stop the “green scam.”

On average, solar power was 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel in 2024, and onshore wind was 53% cheaper. Onshore wind held its spot as the most affordable new source of electricity at $0.034 per kilowatt-hour, with solar close behind at $0.043/kWh.

IRENA’s report says global renewables added 582 gigawatts (GW) of capacity last year, which avoided about $57 billion in fossil fuel costs. That’s not a small dent. Even more impressive: 91% of all new renewable power projects built in 2024 were cheaper than any new fossil fuel option.

Technological innovation, strong supply chains, and economies of scale are driving the cost advantage. Battery prices are helping too: IRENA says utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) are now 93% cheaper than they were in 2010, with prices averaging $192/kWh in 2024.

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But it’s not all smooth sailing. The report flags short-term cost pressures from trade tensions, material bottlenecks, and rising costs in some regions. North America and Europe feel more squeezed than others due to permitting delays, limited grid capacity, and higher system costs.

Meanwhile, countries in Asia, Africa, and South America could see faster cost drops thanks to stronger learning rates and abundant solar and wind resources.

One big challenge is financing. In developing countries, high interest rates and perceived investor risk inflate the levelized cost of electricity of renewables. For example, wind power generation costs were about the same in Europe and Africa last year ($0.052/kWh), but financing made up a much larger share of project costs in Africa. IRENA estimates the cost of capital was just 3.8% in Europe but 12% in Africa.

And even if projects are affordable to build, many are getting stuck in grid connection queues or stalled by slow permitting. Those “integration costs” are now a major hurdle, especially in fast-growing G20 and emerging markets.

Tech is helping with some of that – hybrid solar-wind-storage setups and AI-powered tools are improving grid performance and project efficiency. But digital infrastructure and grid modernization still lag in many places, holding renewables back.

“Renewables are rising, the fossil fuel age is crumbling,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “But leaders must unblock barriers, build confidence, and unleash finance and investment.”

IRENA’s bottom line is that the economics of renewables are stronger than ever, but to keep the momentum going, governments and markets need to reduce risks, streamline permitting, and invest in grids.

Electrek’s Take

Speaking of unblocking barriers and investment, the opposite just happened today in Trump World. The Department of Energy just canceled a $4.9 billion conditional loan commitment for the 800-mile Grain Belt Express Phase 1 transmission project, the biggest transmission line in US history.

It’s a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line connecting Kansas wind farms across four states. It will connect four grids, improving reliability. It will be able to power 50 data centers and create 5,500 jobs. Phase 1 is due to start next year.

The new grid will also connect all forms of energy, not just renewables, and it’s super pathetic that Invenergy had to stoop to put up a map on the project’s home page today showing how it will transmit fossil fuels, the “existing dispatchable generation source,” and felt it had to leave renewables off the map entirely. Sorry, Kansas wind farms, you get no mention because this administration doesn’t like you.

Chicago-based Invenergy plans to build the 5 GW Grain Belt Express in phases from Kansas to Illinois. The company says the project will save customers $52 billion in energy costs over 15 years. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) complained to Trump about the project, calling it a “green scam,” and got the government loan canceled based on a lie, claiming it would cost taxpayers “billions.” This was Invenergy’s response on X:

As usual, Trump was swayed by the last person in the room, and Hawley shot an entire region in the foot when an upgraded grid and more renewables are needed more than ever. Hopefully, this project can continue despite the ignorant shortsightedness coming from the Republicans (who ironically released an AI Action Plan today).

It beggars belief that this political party is this isolated from the rest of the world – well, besides our besties Iran, Libya, and Yemen, who aren’t part of the Paris Agreement either – and being that the US is the world’s No 2 polluter, the world will suffer for its arrogance.

Read more: FERC: Solar + wind made up 96% of new US power generating capacity in first third of 2025


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Elon Musk with a straight face: Tesla Robotaxi will cover half of US population by end of the year

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Elon Musk with a straight face: Tesla Robotaxi will cover half of US population by end of the year

Elon Musk claims that Tesla Robotaxi will cover half of the US population by the end of the year and we can’t stop laughing.

Today, Tesla released its Q2 2025 financial results.

Earnings are down 23% on falling electric vehicle sales and lower margins, but Tesla’s stock is not crashing because CEO Elon Musk is promising a return to earnings growth through autonomous driving and humanoid robots.

We previously reported on how Tesla’s Robotaxi effort is a major shift in strategy for Tesla, which has been promising unsupervised self-driving in its customer vehicles for years.

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Instead, the Robotaxi service consists of an internal fleet operating within a geo-fenced area, currently only in Austin, Texas, and powered by teleoperation and in-car supervisors with a finger on a kill switch at all times.

“I believe half of the population of the US will be covered by Tesla’s Robotaxi by the end of the year.”

He added that he believes that regulatory approval will be the biggest hurdle, even though Tesla’s current service requires a Tesla employee in each car, which is a major hurdle to scaling.

Musk and Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of self-driving, both claimed that the Bay Area will be the first market where Tesla plans to expand its Robotaxi service. However, Elluswamy added that the program will initially have a driver in the driver’s seat.

This makes sense considering we learned last week that Tesla has yet to apply for the proper permits to operate an autonomous ride-hailing service in California.

Electrek’s Take

This is laughable. Who believes that? How can Elon say that with a straight face when Tesla only has a joke of a system that requires supervision at all times?

For context, Tesla currently only operates in a little over half of Austin, Texas. Here’s the list of all the metro areas Tesla would need to launch Robotaxi by the end of the year to cover half of the US population:

Rank Metro Area Population Cumulative Total
1 New York 19.15 M 19.15 M
2 Los Angeles 12.68 M 31.83 M
3 Chicago 9.04 M 40.87 M
4 Houston 6.89 M 47.76 M
5 Dallas–Fort Worth 6.73 M 54.49 M
6 Miami 6.37 M 60.86 M
7 Atlanta 6.27 M 67.13 M
8 Philadelphia 5.86 M 72.99 M
9 Washington, DC 5.60 M 78.59 M
10 Phoenix 4.83 M 83.42 M
11 Boston 4.40 M 87.82 M
12 Seattle 3.58 M 91.40 M
13 Detroit 3.54 M 94.94 M
14 San Diego 3.37 M 98.31 M
15 San Francisco 3.36 M 101.67 M
16 Tampa 3.04 M 104.71 M
17 Minneapolis–St. Paul 2.62 M 107.33 M
18 St. Louis 2.80 M 110.13 M
19 Denver 2.99 M 113.12 M
20 Baltimore 2.83 M 115.95 M
21 Orlando 2.76 M 118.71 M
22 Charlotte 2.75 M 121.46 M
23 San Antonio 2.60 M 124.06 M
24 Austin 2.42 M 126.48 M
25 Pittsburgh 2.43 M 128.91 M
26 Sacramento 2.42 M 131.33 M
27 Las Vegas 2.32 M 133.65 M
28 Cincinnati 2.26 M 135.91 M
29 Kansas City 2.19 M 138.10 M
30 Columbus 2.14 M 140.24 M
31 Cleveland 2.16 M 142.40 M
32 Indianapolis 2.12 M 144.52 M
33 San José 1.99 M 146.51 M
34 Virginia Beach–Norfolk 1.76 M 148.27 M
35 Providence 1.68 M 149.95 M
36 Milwaukee 1.57 M 151.52 M
37 Jacksonville 1.60 M 153.12 M
38 Raleigh–Durham 1.45 M 154.57 M
39 Nashville 1.43 M 156.00 M
40 Oklahoma City 1.42 M 157.42 M
41 Richmond 1.30 M 158.72 M
42 Louisville 1.28 M 160.00 M
43 Salt Lake City 1.26 M 161.26 M
44 New Orleans 1.23 M 162.49 M
45 Hartford 1.20 M 163.69 M
46 Buffalo 1.11 M 164.80 M
47 Birmingham 1.10 M 165.90 M

This is ridiculous. The lies are becoming increasingly larger and more brazen. We know what that means.

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Tesla claims it produced the first builds of its ‘new affordable’ electric car models

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Tesla claims it produced the first builds of its 'new affordable' electric car models

Tesla claims to have produced the “first builds” of its new “more affordable” electric car models, which are expected to be stripped-down versions of the Model 3 and Model Y.

Since last year, Tesla has discussed launching “more affordable models” based on its existing Model 3/Y vehicle platform in the first half of 2025.

The first half of 2025 came and went, and Tesla didn’t launch any new “more affordable” models.

With the release of its Q2 2025 financial results today, Tesla is trying to get semantic and says that it has produced the “first builds” of “a more affordable model” in June:

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We continue to expand our vehicle offering, including first builds of a more affordable model in June, with volume production planned for the second half of 2025.

Now, the automaker talks about launching the vehicle “in 2025” and again claims to have stuck to its “1H2025” timeline with the “initial production”:

“Plans for new vehicles that will launch in 2025 remain on track, including initial production of a more affordable model in 1H25.”

There’s confusion in the Tesla community around Tesla’s upcoming “affordable” vehicles because CEO Elon Musk falsely denied a report last year about Tesla’s “$25,000” EV model being canceled.

The facts are that Musk canceled two cheaper vehicles that Tesla was working on, commonly referred as “the $25,000 Tesla” in early 2024. Those vehicles were codenamed NV91 and NV92, and they were based on the new vehicle platform that Tesla is now reserving for the Cybercab.

Instead, Musk noticed that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y production lines were starting to be underutilized as the Company faced demand issues. Therefore, Tesla canceled the vehicles program based on the new platform and decided to build new vehicles on Model 3/Y platform using the same production lines.

We previously reported that these electric vehicles will likely look very similar to Model 3 and Model Y.

In recent months, several other media reports reinforced this, and Tesla all but confirmed it during its latest earnings call, when it stated that it is “limited in how different vehicles can be when built on the same production lines.”

In recent weeks, a slightly camouflaged prototype resembling almost exactly the Model Y has been spotted around Tesla’s factory in California.

The vehicle is expected to be the “stripped-down” Model Y, which will feature lesser material, fewer features, and possibly be slightly smaller.

It is rumored to start at around $35,000.

The Model Y currently starts at $45,000 in the US before any incentive.

Electrek’s Take

I previously speculated that Tesla might wait to launch the stripped-down, cheaper models in the US until after Q3 to take full advantage of the demand that will be pulled forward due to the end of the $7,500 federal tax credit starting in Q4.

Things are currently aiming in that direction.

Ultimately, I think it will help Tesla increase volumes slightly, but there will be significant cannibalization of its existing lineup. I predict that it will not compensate for the decrease in sales.

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