There are board hints from Stellantis that the French brand Citroën will soon make a comeback in North America, though that comeback will be limited… to Washington D.C.! It appears the Citroën Ami electric city car is destined to be used there by the Stellantis-owned Free2Move car-sharing service.
Messages posted on Free2Move USA's Twitter and LinkedIn pages this week suggest that’s what’s going to happen. The message header announcing “Something big is coming to Washington DC...” was accompanied by a highly patriotic photo showing the silhouette of an Ami in front of the American flag. The photo was superimposed with the words, "New! From France with love".
We can safely assume from this that the Ami will soon be part of the Free2Move fleet in the American capital. This subsidiary of Stellantis (the company formed this year by the merger of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group) has been present in Washington since October 2018. At the time of its launch, Free2Move offered 600 vehicles accessible 24 hours a day there, parked on the streets of the eight District of Columbia boroughs.
Free2Move is the mobility services brand created by the PSA Group in September 2016. The subsidiary offers car-sharing and connectivity services, as well as fleet management services and financial services related to vehicle purchases.
Free2Move is also currently present in seven European countries (France, Spain, Italy, England, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands).
Citroën (another Stellantis subsidiary) candidly describes the Ami as a non-conformist object! Launched in 2020, this tiny two-seater sedan with symmetrical shapes is barely 2.4 metres long. That's significantly shorter than a Fiat 500, which is 3.6 metres. Its electric motor is powered by a 5.5 kWh battery that gives it a maximum range of 75 km.
The Ami’s top speed is limited to 45 km/h - not because of the small battery, but rather because the Ami is intended to be used as a car needing no driver’s permit. In France, a car of this type can be driven from the age of 14 on condition that the driver has obtained a road safety certificate, a compulsory training for people born after 1987.
Citroën offers the Ami from €6,990 (about $10,300). It is also available for long-term rental and, since March 2020, for car-sharing in the greater Paris area.
