Citroen e-C4 (2024 - ) Electric review

Citroen has (wisely) decided to price the e-C4 very keenly. The starting price is less than you’ll pay for a (much smaller) electric Vauxhall Corsa, which is extra baffling because it effectively comes from the same company on the basis Vauxhall and Citroen are both owned by Stellantis, and the two cars share a lot of parts. It’s worth pointing out, though, that Citroen residual values aren’t great, which will negatively impact your monthly payment if you’re financing your e-C4, which you probably are. Still, it’s a lot of car for the money, whether you go for the EV here or one of the petrol-powered versions. In another wise move, Citroen offers the e-C4 with two ‘engine’ options. The car with the lowest price comes with the 2020 car’s original 50kWh battery and a 100kW (134 horsepower if you’re old school) motor. That keeps costs down. But if you want a top-of-the-range car, that one comes with a newer 54kWh battery and 154 horsepower motor. Not a great deal of difference in range terms, really – about 30-40 miles more between full charges compared to the 200-230-mile range quoted for the smaller battery. But obviously a MAX e-C4 is a slightly quicker e-C4 – see the Power section for more.

On one hand, you kind of know what to expect with a Citroen given the previous generation Citroen C4s had a quite dreadful reputation for reliability. That said, Citroen is forging a much better reputation these days. It was the seventh most reliable manufacturer in a 2024 consumer magazine survey. And in the same survey, this e-C4 was the company’s best-performing model while any major issues that the C4 had will probably have been ironed out for this facelifted model. The electric one in particular should fare okay, what with electric motors being FAR less complicated pieces of equipment than internal combustion motors.

The safety dudes at Euro NCAP crash tested the C4 and e-C4 in 2021 and gave it four stars, which at a glance is a little disappointing – most cars in this class get five-star scores these days. Look a little deeper into the results, though, and there’s not too much to worry about. Its adult and child occupant protection scores were good, with its overall score reduced for a relatively poor ‘vulnerable road users’ score. The e-C4 doesn’t have as many airbags as it could though (nothing running through the centre of the cabin, nor for anyone’s knees), and only top-spec cars get blind spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control, as well as the ‘Safety Pack Plus'. This includes advanced cyclist detection, speed limit detection and “extended” traffic sign recognition, whatever that means.

Given that comfort is the e-C4’s main schtick it might seem unusual this isn’t a five-star score. For most people, it will feel like a five-star comfort experience. But we’ve knocked a star off because Citroen, for whatever reason, simply cannot engineer a driving position to suit all physiques into its cars. Basically, if you’re tall or long-legged, the pedals will be too close or the steering wheel too far away. You’ll never get both things in just the right place. (Here’s an idea, Citroen: get a Volkswagen or a BMW, figure out the ratios for the wheel and pedal and seat placement, and just copy those.) Anyway, it’s a real shame because the actual ride quality of the e-C4 is exceptional. As are the seats themselves. And they combine to make this thing feel unlike any other mid-level hatchback. Try to drive it quickly around a corner and the whole thing becomes spongier and soggier than the coral reef, but at all other times (which is 95 per cent of the driving you'll actually do), this is a supremely comfy thing to be in. And it’s spacious, front and back.

This feels like a big car, as family hatchbacks go, which is odd because it’s actually a little shorter than a Ford Focus. It’s probably because the rear end design means the back screen is shallow and, therefore, rear visibility sucks. The bonnet feels long too. It’s not the easiest thing to park - feels like it could do with that ‘invisible bonnet’ feature that Nissan does on its touch-screens. The 380-litre boot is about average too, just a few litres shy of the boot space in a Volkswagen ID.3. The e-C4 does feel well-equipped from the off. Granted, this tends to be the case with most family hatchbacks now – only Dacia is still flying the flag for the truly boggo-spec base car these days. Base spec, called YOU! (not sure why they’re shouting it tbh) comes with 18-inch two-tone alloys, a 10-inch touch-screen, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, automatic windscreen wipers, LED lights, rear parking sensors and dual-zone climate control. Oof. So, you might ask, why bother with PLUS or MAX spec? Well, aside from MAX’s extra safety, bigger battery and additional power, you’ll get ever-fancier parking assistance as you move up the range, fancier side mirrors too, a bigger digital instrument cluster, nicer interior lighting and, in a top spec car, heated front seats. It's up to you to decide whether you need it (obviously), but for our money, because a e-C4 never really feels like a fancy car, we wouldn’t bother. Also, as a side note, the (standard) touch-screen is laggy and frustrating, but that’s just how Citroen rolls. Again, Citroen, get into that BMW or, to a lesser extent, Volkswagen. Figure it out.

Citroen offering two distinct drivetrain set-ups wouldn’t feel that odd if they weren’t so similar on paper: a 50kWh battery and 100kW motor versus a 54kWh battery and 115kW motor. We discussed the battery range difference earlier but, in performance terms, the more powerful one gets to 62mph an eighth of a second quicker. 0-62mph in 9.2 seconds. You may have deciphered, then, that these are not rapid electric cars. They're smooth and ... quick enough. That's all. Again, this isn't a car rewarding of enthusiastic driving, so unless the extra few miles of range that the bigger battery comes with is a proper deal breaker for you, we'd suggest a top-spec e-C4 isn't the most prudent purchase.