“We were afraid of scooters”, many young people and parents are turning to cars without a license

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They have become the new stars of 14-18 year olds. In front of high schools, they don’t make noise, but they impose it. Like every day after school, Brune, a 16-year-old high school student, returns home in her unlicensed cart that runs on electric power. “It saves time in the morning and the same in the evening. You can go to many more places than with a bus“, she explains.

A ticket to freedom which cost his parents more than 7,000 euros. An investment that they deemed necessary. “We were afraid of scooters, motorists and the accidents that could happen. We think it’s more visible for a young person to have a car“, estimates mother Maude Cabaret. And there are thousands of “yogurt pots” like Brune’s throughout France. In four years, registrations of new carts have increased from nearly 13,000 to more than 31,000, more than double.

The license-free car, long mocked, has become trendy. “We have an atypical object, by its color, by its style, by its shape. We have the front which is exactly the same as the rear, the doors which are also symmetrical“, develops Citroën Ami product manager Alain Le Gouguec.

But security questions arise. In the event of an accident, even if the maximum speed is 45 km/h, the impacts can be much more serious than in a city car. “You should know that this vehicle, for example, does not have airbags. It remains a vehicle which, during crash tests, does not show the same resistance as a traditional family vehicle that we might be familiar with. So no, it’s not the same level of safety as the cars you see passing behind me“, informs Pierre Chasseray, spokesperson for the “40 million motorists” association.

To drive a car without a license, it’s very simple. All you need to do is follow 8 hours of practical and theoretical training in a driving school.