Just when I thought every brand that was going to dip its toe into the overlanding pool already had, Citroën goes and surprises me. Last week, the storied French automaker revealed a four-wheeled adventure-mobile that it insists is “not a car.”
It’s called “My Ami Buggy.” And if it’s not a car, then what is it? The designer of the Buggy says it’s “the purest spirit of iconic and contemporary industrial objects.” I don’t know if I agree with that. Nevertheless, it’s a quirky little machine and it deserves your attention.
Not surprisingly, the My Ami Buggy is an EV and runs solely on electrons. That’s not the interesting bit, though. What’s interesting is that designers fitted this twee EV with a list of accessories you’d expect to see on an expedition vehicle. These include bull bars, headlight grilles, LED light bar, rock sliders, roof rack carrying a full-size spare, and mud tires wrapped around gold wheels.
For being not a car, it sure has some cool car features.
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Although you can’t see them in the video below, the Buggy purportedly has transparent canvas door coverings that can be zipped onto the vehicle during inclement weather events. Otherwise, they’re rolled up and stowed away in their own specially designed storage bins.
Another interesting feature is how Citroën describes the light bar. It says the bar can, in combination with the Buggy’s “nomadic speaker,” create a “campfire atmosphere” with diffused lighting and presumably campfire audio. This is a nice alternative to a campfire, when they’re prohibited.
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t pick the Ami Buggy for my own adventure-mobile. To me, the Ami Buggy is exciting because it demonstrates that even French urbanites are keen to experience the outdoor adventure “atmosphere.” I say, the more the merrier.
