The new Citroën ë-C4 X is as straightforward a proposition as its name suggests. The 'ë' is because it’s electric only, the 'C4' because it’s based on the Citroën C4 hatchback and the 'X' because there’s more besides: a rakish, fastback-style rear end with a saloon boot.
It’s longer than the C4, at 4.6 metres rather than 4.36 metres, but has the same 2.67m wheelbase, so everything new is hanging out the rear. It’s very much a saloon version of the hatch, and it's the longest car made on the Stellantis CMP architecture, meant for smaller cars.
In the UK, there's just the one battery option: a 46kWh (net; gross is 50kWh) lump giving it a range of just 222 miles - not a figure that's going to break any records. Nor is the charging rate particularly revolutionary, with a maximum 100kW ingestion replenshing 0-80% in 30 minutes. A 134bhp front-mounted motor drives the front wheels, giving a 0-62mph time of 10sec dead.
But Citroën is refreshingly honest about this. No smoke and mirrors here, just a candid appraisal of what a bigger battery would have meant: more cost, more weight and less of what buyers allegedly want.
Citroën wants to be the brand of 'enough' and not embrace excess. That has overtones of the comedic BL Princess strapline 'Better than average', but let's gloss over that and focus on the fact that this elongated ë-C4 does deliver on the key aspect of the small battery strategy, in that it costs from £31,995. In this day and age, that's a lot of car for the money.
We tried the mid-range Shine trim (£34,495), but basic Sense is the one to get, as it doesn't miss out on much.
Beyond the cost, of significance is that the rear seats have a more reclined back angle and the boot volume is 510 litres, 130 more than in the C4 – although it’s less versatile because the opening when you drop the split-folding rear bench is obviously shallower.
In other markets, you can get a diesel or petrol engine too, as you can here in the C4, but CO2-emissions pressures – and I suspect a more niche audience, because Brits have never been mad on saloon versions of hatches – have meant Citroën has kept it straightforward.
First impressions are C4-like, you will be utterly stunned to read. The front of the cabin is the same as that which we gave a solid three-and-a-half star rating in the C4’s road test two years ago, and it stacks up just as well today. The seats are broad and attractively finished, if on the flatter side, and the steering wheel is hugely adjustable.
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