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When is a car not a car, but an 'object?' When it's a Citroen Ami One Concept apparently. That's how Citroen describes its new concept car (object), which will debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month. It's "an alternative to public transport and other modes of transport such as bikes and electric scooters" according to its maker.
It's actually a tiny (just 2.5 metres long, 1.5 metres high, and riding on 18-inch wheels) two-seat urban runabout. Citroen says that the idea behind the Ami One is that it's "making its customers' lives easier in terms of mobility access by offering, via digital media, several options spanning car-sharing, rental and purchase, whether it is for five minutes, five hours or five days of use - as well as over longer periods with rental offers for five months or long-term leasing arrangements for five years."
The short-term micro-rental side of things will be handled by a collaboration with car-sharing firm Free2Move. Longer-term rentals and leases will be looked after by Citroen, or its Rent&Smile operation.
You'll be able to book or buy an Ami One, theoretically, through an 'Ami One Counter' - a freestanding counter that can be easily set up at the kerbside or in a shopping centre. Once you've got hold of one, everything about the Ami One - from the interior climate settings to where you're going to charge it up - is handled through a smartphone app.
The Ami One is designed purely for urban life, so it's slow (with a top speed of just 45km/h) and short-ranged (a small battery means you'll get a mere 100km out of one charge). On the upside, that small battery means you can go from flat to charged in just two hours.
Because it runs silently around town, Citroen has fitted it with an external noise to warn pedestrians that it's coming. "Mixing male and female voices, worlds away from the digital cliché of the 'robot'. Firmly setting the vehicle apart, the sound identity, formed by a sequence of notes that change according to speed."
Oddly, Citroen is not talking about fully autonomous driving for the Ami One (another sign that car makers are retreating a little from fully autonomy, perhaps?). Instead, the interior gets a steering wheel and an automatic gearbox selector, and uses your smartphone as a hub for the infotainment system, projecting its display onto the windscreen. There's also a small five-inch digital instrument panel.
On the outside, the two doors are asymmetric - rear-hinged on the driver's side for easier access, front-hinged on the passenger side for better safety. The door handles are simple rubber straps, with built-in RFID sensors that use your phone's signal to lock or unlock.
And, in what might be an evocation of the 2CV, it's a convertible - there's a grey roll-back roof that lets in the outside world when the weather's nice.
In the cabin, there are 'Citroen Advanced Comfort' seats, as well as a compact storage shelf just behind the driver's seat, and Citroen has even designed special luggage - a backpack, a shopping basket and a duffel bag - that all fits neatly inside.