If doomscrolling has you feeling down, allow me to offer a brief reprieve. This is the Fiat Topolino and, as you’ve probably guessed, it’s a re-worked Citroen Ami, the tiny French quadricycle taking the internet and Monaco by storm. As part of the Topolino treatment, Fiat gave the Ami the face of an old Nuova 500, and it works perfectly. The new Topolino is just so incredibly friend-shaped, like come on. You just want to give it a gold star and a tiny hat, it’s so pinch-me cute. The roll-back sunroof, the retro mirrors, the dog dish hubcaps, it’s all just so perfect. Fiat even painted it the same color as mint chocolate chip ice cream, just to send the aww-meter through the ceiling. You don’t look at the Topolino like a car, you look at it like a puppy.
Unfortunately, Fiat is so flip-flapping confident in the new Topolino that it’s only released one photo and seven paragraphs of marketing-speak on this tiny guy. While I’d love to see more of this new voiture sans permis, now’s a perfect time to show you its cousin, the Citroen my Ami Buggy.
Powering the Ami is a 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery pack feeding an eight-horsepower electric motor. Despite such meager figures and the silhouette of a telephone booth, it sports a range of 46 miles and an electronically-limited top speed of 28 mph. I’d be surprised if the Topolino deviates much from these figures, as speed isn’t the goal here. Fiat claims its littlest vehicle “will expand urban electric mobility,” which makes me picture the slowest-ever remake of the Blue Brothers mall chase.
Alright, technical stuff over, let’s talk heritage. Topolino is Italian for “little mouse” which is just the most adorable thing, although this new model doesn’t look particularly mousy. That’s because it’s a throwback in spirit to the original Topolino, a mouse-shaped car designed to mobilize Italy. America had the Model T, Britain had the Austin Seven, and Italy had the 1936 Fiat 500. With a top speed of 53 mph and a reasonable price tag of 8,900 lire, it was a massive success. Fiat sold more than half a million of these little things over a 19-year timespan, cementing this peoples’ car as an icon. It might not be quite as synonymous with la dolce vita as the Nuova 500 that came after, but that doesn’t matter, it’s still utterly charming. Mind you, the 500C model lost its mousey face, but here’s a picture of one absolutely zooming to make up for it.
This might sound moderately unhinged but Fiat would be silly to not sell the Topolino in America. Before you ask me if I’ve gone mad, let me be perfectly clear: The Topolino would not compete with cars. See, Americans spend an awful lot of money on golf cars in areas where you can take one to the shops. Retirement villages, sandy locales, Jason Torchinsky’s living room, those sorts of areas. The Topolino would be like a luxury Changli, competing with the electric Moke, various Club Cars, and a litany of E-Z-Gos. I reckon on aesthetics alone, it’s a slam-dunk in that category. In summation: Stop what you’re doing, a new microcar just dropped, and it has the potential to shut ‘em down and open up shop. I wonder if the Ruff Ryders could roll with this wonderful little quadricycle?
(Photo credits: Fiat, Citroen)
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Ford sold over 500,000 Mustangs in it’s first year
With all the personality of a phone booth.
Well it should go with 50km/h to properly integrate in the traffic flow on city streets. As long as it goes 5km too slow, it will just be dangerous since people will try to overtake.
It could be the second time Chrysler sells an EV golf cart.
This was a nice palate cleanser from the H2 article. Appreciated.
I want that 500C. Its got kind of a Morris Minor face with (in that shot) a ‘37 Businessman’s Coupe rear shape.
Covet!
Bring the Fiat over: I’m quite sick of the TactiCool carts that are proliferating around here. The Rimz in particular bug me: jagged black & chrome. I’ve mellowed way out on many vehicles and mods, but these carts still draw my ire. ‘People can do their own thing!’ I tell myself, but the hate still bubbles
OK, it’s not the Topolino, but the newly redesigned 500 EV is coming soon: https://www.fiatusa.com/500e-reveal.html
I just hope they keep the price reasonable. With the range improvements, I might be tempted to trade my 2017 500e in for one of these babies.
This picture make me remember that my parents and grand parents called the classic fiat 500 in France “Pot de Yaourt” (Yoghurt Pot) and I think it’s even more fitting with this model. Do you use that name in other countries ?
Like this kind of pot but upside down.
https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1202676225/fr/photo/trois-tasses-en-plastique-pour-yaourt-avec-couvercle-de-papier-daluminium-illustration-3d.jpg?s=612×612&w=0&k=20&c=DKlPR6HWuiyv_pDNs06lPuKRaySllL-MmX4Ndlo9g-8=
The Ami isn’t taking just the internet by storm. Back in january they’d sold 30.000 of them, and judging by how popular they are here in Portugal – definitely not the best market for an overpriced quadricycle – I’m pretty sure they can expand on this initial success by getting into new markets. The idea that Stellantis could sell these as fancy golf carts in the USA is pretty genius. I’m sure with the proper marketing the new Topolino would be a sales hit among that crowd – there’s always rich people looking for new ways to flaunt their wealth.
Have you seen the price of golf carts these days? An Ami might actually be cheaper. Retirement communities would gobble them up.
Well… can’t really say that I have, so I’ll take your word for it. But damn… really?
Oh yes, I just checked out Garia and US street legal 2-seater starts at nearly $20k and you can option it to over $40k.
Meanwhile, an Ami costs 7k.
If the real apocalypse ever happens in an antipode manner to the way Hollywood likes to portray it I’m pretty sure all of us survivors will all be happily driving these about.
Just waving at each other as we pass.
So many open lanes to choose from on the highways.
Yeah, Blues Brothers! -fix the cigarette lighter…
So the rest of planet earth gets small, efficient EVs that the Average person can pay off in a year but the United States is concentrating its efforts on EVs that are big as a house with a monthly payment that exceeds the average mortgage?
Land of the free my butt.
Summed up immaculately.
The idea is to keep people in debt. The car companies make more money off of Americans financing the cars and paying interest than the car companies make selling the cars to dealerships. Then when this model inevitably fails for being the pyramid scheme that it is(constantly growing price tags from ever larger vehicles a requirement to sustain the business model), your taxes get to pay to bail out the car manufacturers, without you so much as getting a vote on the matter or the ability to prevent your money from being used to this end.
This is begging for wicker seating and a canopy with fringe.
Go full-tuktuk with it, like the mad decorators of India & Pakistan. Special mention to the jitneys of the Caribbean, where I once saw a microbus with a CONFIDENCE decal covering the top 1/3rd of the windscreen.
I wonder the safety cage patent of the Smart has expired? if not, one’s heart will be squished like a marshmellow when one get T boned by a Tahoe / Excursion / Durango.
So there’s the Ami for France, the Rocks for Germany, this Topolino for Monaco, maybe they’ll do a Lancia ‘Y10’ version for Italy, a Jeep one for U.S., a DS one for China, and a Vauxhall for the UK?
A jeep microcar would be incredible. jack it up a few inches, market it as some kind of backyard offroader, put some dirt mounds behind the dealership to putter around on. you could trick so many suburbanites into getting electric microcars….
Are you effing kidding me,? My lawn mower has more hp. Take its motor put it in a Playskil plastic car and you can tear this thing up. How does it beat a golf cart? You cant drive away fast enough to escape the laughter.
golf carts are already popular for transportation in old folks planned suburbs like the villages. this has double the top speed of a golf cart and looks cute, the appeal is obvious. the real issue for the US is that car ownership is cheap enough that there’s no incentive to get a microcar that’s speed limited and costs as much as a real used car. if it got imported here it would primarily be a second vehicle for rich people who don’t feel like taking their suv to starbucks.
I built an enclosed sub-100 lb rear-wheel-drive vehicle that could do donuts and shred the rear tire with all of 4 horsepower. It only needs a 1.5 kWh battery to get a 150-200 mile range at 30-35 mph cruising speeds, and in that configuration, topped out at 50 mph.
Mass reduction and drag reduction are wonderful things. Legally, it’s a “bicycle” in my state.
It has since been upgraded to 13 horsepower, and once the new body design is installed and I reconfigure the battery pack for higher voltage operation, it will be capable of reaching over 100 mph and able to do 0-60 mph in under 9 seconds.
In the long term, I might add hub motors to both front wheels as well, and increase the horsepower to about 30, while granting all wheel drive with instant slip detection and torque vectoring. In that guise, the vehicle might weigh around 120 lbs. Consider the acceleration potential of that. Should this come to fruition, it might be able to play with Hellcats and Corvettes at the drag strip.
Monaco is probably the perfect place for a car like this – perfect weather all year long, national 50kph/31mph speed limit, and only 77km/48 miles of roads in the entire country. Also, the whole place is freaking gorgeous, so you should drive something pretty (and I really do think the new Ami/Topolino is, as much as possible within its form factor).
Except there are hills. https://youtu.be/8ZoivmtCNbQ?t=1518
My little city (3km wide) with 50k people is flat and densely populated and has enough speed limited streets (to 30km). This car is a very good candidate, and the ami is so ugly that without any wrap or new paint job just can’t work. So bringing the kids around with a two seater might just work well (since they have separated activities, I can always take just one with me). But i think doors are necessary for it rains a lot here.