Citroën Is Coming Back To The U.S. In A B̶i̶g̶ (Make That Small) Way: News

France is back! Sort of

Citroen Ami
Yes, this Citroën Ami is a real car. And yes, it is (technically) a return of sorts for the French brand to American soil. (Images: Citroën, except where marked)

Peugeot won’t return to the U.S. anytime soon, but…

All of us in the TFL office — well, alright, maybe it was just me and Nathan — were bummed when Stellantis scuttled any notion of bringing the Peugeot brand to the United States. French cars haven’t been a thing here for multiple decades now, but I do occasionally saw the odd Peugeot 504 sedan and Citroën 2CV milling about, especially when I lived in the Pacific Northwest. (Side note: If you want to see some fantasictally weird cars, visit Portland some time.) Now though, thanks to Stellantis, Citroën is making a triumphant return to the States!

Okay, we won’t exactly see a flood of French sheet metal on our streets: It’s just one model. And it’s only coming to Washington, D.C. And you can’t buy one. Bummer. That’s pretty much that, but if you’re weird and intrigued like me or wondering, “What the hell is that thing?” when you scrolled past the photo above, read on.

If you haven’t seen it yet, meet the Citroën Ami.

Europeans won’t be shocked by this, as they’ve been able to experience this electric “quadricycle” since last year. The Moroccan-built vehicle can actually be driven in France without a license by people born before 1988 or some teenagers (14 or older) who hold an “AM” license in a member state to the European Economic Area (EEA). That age changes slightly depending on which member state you’re talking about, but France sets the mark at 14 years old. And yes, the name descends from that Citroën Ami, if the name sounded familiar.

As such, the tiny Citroën Ami shown here has an 8 (yes, eight) horsepower electric motor and can’t exceed 28 mph. The 5.5-kWh battery pack means a range of up to 43 miles, per Citroën, so it’s not like it would work anywhere outside a crowded urban area the nation’s capital. The Ami is available through car-sharing programs like Free2Move, who shared via their LinkedIn page that “something big” is coming to Washington.

I see what you did there.

No word on when the tiny little Citroën Ami will arrive in the company’s DC carshare fleet, or how much it will cost. Either way, Stellantis and Free2Move are, in a way, bringing the French brand back to the U.S. So if you’re visiting at some point in the future and see these tiny cart-like runabouts cruising the streets, at least you’ll know what they are.

The French brand last sold a car in the United States in 1974.

Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had tiny cars running around everywhere: Remember Car2go? That was a thing. We’ve had our own go with a tiny car as well: