Citroën presented a few weeks ago, the Citroën Ami, an electric vehicle which is a real competitor to the Renault Twizy 45.
Finally ! Realize, the Twizy was the only one on the electric quadricycle market for 8 years ...
So as the former owner of Twizy, still a fan but still lucid, that could not leave me indifferent for a long time, and I will therefore devote myself to the exercise of comparison.
Be careful, however, a comparison will only have value for you if you define your travel needs well, your budgetary capacities of course, and if you take into account your other priorities such as safety or comfort ...
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Types of trips
Road use
Renault offers the Twizy 80 model which remains unrivaled for extra-urban use. If you have the B license and want to travel on country roads, traveling at 45 km / h with an Ami or a Twizy 45 will not be really fun, and can even be dangerous, while the Twizy 80 can drive up to 84 km / h.
On the road: Advantage to the Twizy 80 for lack of fighter!
Urban and peri-urban use
The Ami is positioned in town as a real competitor of the model 45 of the Twizy, the 2 vehicles being limited to 45 km / h and being able to be driven "without a license", from 14 years old.
In town: Equality
Autonomy and recharge
With a 5.5 kWh battery the Ami provides 75 km of autonomy according to the WMTC standard which can be reduced to 55-60 km in real conditions.
The Twizy 45 is equipped with a 6.1 kWh battery offering 120 km according to the manufacturer, but 80-90 km real.
In both cases, recharging is done on a simple domestic socket, without the possibility of rapid recharging. If the recharging times are almost equivalent, respectively 3h and 3h30 for a full charge, the Twizy is again a little more efficient, since 1 hour of recharging will very roughly give the Twizy 25 km of autonomy, against 20 km for the Ami.
Autonomy and recharging: Advantage to the Twizy 45
Safety
The Twizy 45 is equipped with an airbag and a second seat belt for the driver, which the Ami does not have. The Euro NCAP crash test put the Twizy at the head of the quadricycles despite only 2 small stars. The Ami has not yet undergone an official crash test but we can assume that the absence of an airbag will be unfavorable to him. It also seems to me that the passenger of a Twizy, seated in the back and restrained by the front seat in the event of an impact, is better protected than that of a Friend.
The Twizy's handling is better thanks to a lower center of gravity. Its braking, although harder, is also a little more efficient thanks to its 4 disc brakes.
The Twizy is rear-wheel drive vehicle with rear-wheel drive, while the Ami is front-wheel drive. The first can sometimes create surprises on a slippery road, but Renault has worked well on this point by giving its vehicle a slightly understeer character, with a tendency to go straight, easier to catch up in the event of loss of grip.
Safety: Clear advantage to the Twizy 45
Comfort and practicalities
The presence of really hermetic windows and a heater in the base model of the Ami gives it a clear advantage over the Twizy even equipped with its optional windows and a heated blanket. The Twizy is a real strainer, and the rear passenger is even worse off than the driver.
The comfort of the seats seems equivalent, that is to say spartan, but the Ami's suspension seems to filter out the imperfections of the road better.
The passenger of the Ami can be seated much more easily than that of the Twizy and its position next to the driver is much more pleasant than the position in tandem of the Twizy.
Storage boxes are very small in the Twizy and almost nonexistent in the Ami, but the latter has a bunch of nifty little storage spots and seems to me more practical overall than the Twizy.
The dashboard is rudimentary in both cases but the Ami is better designed to receive your smartphone to obtain additional information on the vehicle, navigation aid, listen to music, etc.
The Twizy does not have lockable doors.
Be careful, the panoramic glass roof is often presented as a plus but it can become a drawback when the weather is very nice by making the vehicle a real oven with wheels.
Comfort and practical aspects: a clear advantage to the Citroën Ami
Dimensions / handling
The fact that the occupants are side by side in the Ami is a comfort advantage that pays off in terms of size. The Ami is therefore wider by a dozen cm but also longer by a little ten. Its turning radius is also larger by 40 cm, which is not negligible. All this makes the Ami a little less manoeuvrable and less easy to park in the very small parking spaces that these vehicles like. However, neither one nor the other will be able to squeeze through traffic as a 2-wheeler would.
The Twizy's elytral doors make it possible to exit the vehicle with very little space around, better than with the classic opening doors of the Ami.
Dimensions and maneuverability: Advantage to the Twizy
Motorization
The Ami's engine is more powerful by 3 HP (7 Nm) than that of the Twizy 45 and therefore gives it more power when starting.
Motorization: Advantage to the Ami
Price
To compare the 2 vehicles, it is necessary to present comparable models, that is to say with doors, side windows, a panoramic roof, defrosting of the windshield, a heater, since all this is present in the base model of the Citroën Ami which costs 6,900 €.
To obtain the equivalent with a Twizy 45, you will have to pay € 10,000 for a basic Twizy 45 plus doors (€ 590), windows (€ 400), a transparent roof (€ 250), defrosting (€ 100) ) and an electric blanket (188 €). Total: 11,528 €
(Price excluding ecological bonus, currently 900 €)
Note: the capacity of the Ami's battery is 10% less, which means that with equal use it will have 10% less life.
Price: Very clear advantage to the Citroën Ami
Aesthetic
Before concluding, I will quickly mention the aesthetic aspect which is of course a very personal question. I find L'Ami quite ugly and I don't have a crush like on the Twizy. However, I also find it rather nice and in the end, it corresponds quite well to this old Citroën tradition of producing ugly but very simple and nice cars, I am thinking of the 2CV, the Dyane, the Méhari or even the Ami 6! I think it can really seduce.
Conclusion
If price or comfort are your priority, the Ami by far beats the Twizy 45.
If your priority is autonomy or safety, then the Twizy 45 is a better proposition.
Maybe considering buying a used Twizy 45 would be one way to minimize the big problem with its price.
Personally, I hope that the appearance of the Citroën Ami will push Renault to release a version 2 of its Twizy with improvements where they are weakest, i.e. on the price and we can imagine that, for example, the production cost of lithium batteries having fallen sharply, Renault can easily make an effort on this, and on comfort with, among other things, real windows and heating ...
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