The Citroen Ami is a tiny two-door EV with a 5.5-kilowatt-hour battery pack powering the vehicle, allowing up to a modest 70 km of range and a maximum speed of only 45 km per hour.
There are no restrictions to driving it despite its limitation, but it is designed for “jaunts around town”.
Enter the Greek island of Chalki.
Chalki is truly tiny: its landmass is only 28 km.
Therefore, big SUVs would be cumbersome, and so local authorities teamed up with Citroen to create a fleet of minuscule electric patrol vehicles.
Two are used by the police force and two are used by the Coast Guard. There are also two E-C4 crossovers, one E-Spacetourer van, and an E-Jumpy on Chalki.
Similarly, in Athens’ narrow streets and tightly packed traffic, ten Fiat 500e EVs buzz around, chasing wrongdoers down quickly.
Of course, they have strobe lights. The 3+1 Fiats also have a suicide door on one side, through which suspects can be pushed into the car.
Serbia also has them.
Internet discourse around the subject has revealed that the lilliputian size has become an ironic symbol for many citizens who see local authorities as corrupt and ineffectual.
