Have you ever wondered what it would be like to just fit a set of wheels to your favourite armchair and take it out for a spin? Wonder no more with the new Citroën ë-C4.
Citroën always have brought the best seats to any party and this new ë-C4 hatchback EV is no exception. Honestly, you won't want to leave the deep comfort of the car when you get home. You'll be warm and snug, and the very thought of entering a colder house and sitting on a harder chair will leave you with quite the dilemma.
The overall feel is helped by Citroën's hydraulic cushion suspension, which is both good and not so good. The former because it really does conjure up the feel of Citroëns of old (the television ad even makes a nice play on nostalgic memories of it), the latter because it leaves the handling a little on the flabby side.
It's not a deal-breaker, because the compensation of arriving to your destination fresh as a daisy, even after a long drive, is more than welcome, especially if you usually end up stiff and sore. But there is another problem with that long drive, and that's range.
Citroën claims you'll get up to 350km from the battery, but at 50kWh, it's on the small side by today's standards, and you really won't get anywhere near that at this time of year. I charged it to 100 per cent on my home wallbox and the predicted range was 285km, because the onboard computer endlessly recalculates it based on prior driving patterns. That's fair enough, but even at that, it was wildly ambitious when it came to motorway driving.
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My trip from home to the drop-off point is 88km, but by the time I got there, I had lost 135km of the predicted range after travelling at 120kph for most of the drive.
For me, then, this makes the ë-C4 more of an urban and suburban proposition, because the range actually is correct on local runs. If all you have to do every day is a short work commute, the school run, or heading to the shops, you'd never have any worries, but if you were striking out cross country, a little bit of forward planning in terms of public chargers would serve you well.
Talking of charging, it takes about seven hours from 0-100 per cent on a 7kW home charger, a reflection of the smaller battery size, and I really would like to see the ë-C4 available with a bigger battery too, though the added weight involved surely informs their thinking on this. If you really wanted peace of mind, the C4 is available in petrol and diesel anyway, and it's to all intents and purposes the same car.
And what a lovely car it is. In a world gone crossover crazy, it's nice to see one that looks like a car, a proper fiveseat hatchback with good space in the boot (380 litres, 1,250 litres with the rear bench down). It's no surprise it won Medium Car of the Year at this month's Irish Car of the Year Awards, sponsored by Continental tyres, because it ticks an awful lot of boxes in its segment.
My test model came with 18-inch diamond cut alloywheels, tinted side windows, anodised blue exterior accents, LED headlights, fogs and daytime running lights, and chrome detailing on the glasshouse frame. It also came in Oblia [stet] Blue Metallic, a really lovely shade for this country, subtle and understated when the weather is dull, lively and vibrant when the sun comes out.
I drove two DS models recently, the DS3 and DS7, which I'll tell you about soon, and compared to them, the C4 wins on cabin design.
The 5.5-inch instrument cluster is maybe a bit on the small side, but the 10-inch infotainment screen is crisp and clear, and compatible, as you now assume, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (and either is better than the native system, which is a bit fiddly).
The car is sharp enough off the blocks, at 9.7 seconds from 0-100kph, but by no means the fastest EV you'll drive. Motor tax is €120 a year, and the purchase price of €36,603 already reflects the €5,000 SEAI grant.
Where the ë-C4 rally scores over its rivals (including a handful of Peugeots, Opels and DS models from its own Stellantis family) is twofold. It still brings more Gallic flair to the design than its rivals do, and offers more driver comfort than even the prestige German models, which tend to go more for austere sportiness.
I have no hesitation in recommending it to the urban driver, but if you regularly have to drive a couple of hundred kilometres a day, this might not be the car for you.
CITROËN Ë-C4 PRICE (FLAIR TRIM): €36,603 ELECTRIC MOTOR: 100kw (136hp) BATTERY CAPACITY: 50kWh TRANSMISSION: Single-speed automatic TOP SPEED: 150kph ENERGY CONSUMPTION 15.9kWh/100km RANGE: 350km 0/100KM/H: 9.7seconds CO2: 0g/km €120 tax DIMENSIONS: 4378mm (L); 1825mm (W, excl mirrors); 1454mm (H)
Images: Provided
