Citroën’s electric Ami might only be capable of 45 km/h but when the company announced it would build a limited run of the My Ami Buggy concept, fans snapped them up like they were bidding on a US$ 2 million hypercar. The 50-unit run sold out in less than 18 minutes. But now Citroën has great news for anyone who missed out on that occasion. The company was so amazed by the demand that it’s building a further 1,000 examples that will be available on a first-come, first-served basis next spring, with deliveries starting in the summer.
The firm says the second run of cars will
be very similar to the first 50 examples but will come with “a few surprise
features,” though we’ll have to wait until early in 2023 to find out what they
are. The standard Ami has been a surprise hit for Citroën, racking up 30,000
sales since it first went on sale in 2020. But the beach-style Ami Buggy really
piqued people’s interest thanks to its lack of doors, chunky off-road tires,
and mesh headlight guards. Citroën showed it first as the My Ami Buggy Concept
in December 2021, and although the 50 production versions that followed in the
summer of 2022 were toned down and fitted with more conventional wheels, that
didn’t seem to dampen fans’ enthusiasm.
But those original Buggy buyers – who
presumably thought they were getting collector pieces – are probably going to
be less than enthusiastic to hear that Citroën is building another 1,000 units,
so the company is going to have to ensure the first 50 look suitably different
from the newer versions. Although the firm hasn’t released a full spec for the
1,000 new special editions, it’s unlikely that the mechanical spec will change
from that of the standard Ami and the 50 original Buggies. All Amis feature a
5.5 kWh battery that can recharge in four hours and provides an electric
driving range of 74 km.
The Buggy isn’t the only creative Ami
derivative to come from the brain of Stellantis’s most idiosyncratic brand.
There’s also a commercial My Ami Cargo with a 140 kg payload designed
for urban delivery services.
