CITROËN ë-C4

Offered alongside ICE versions, Citroën’s first mass-market EV has comfort at its core, finds Alex Grant.

- Alex Grant

You’d be forgiven for missing it, but Citroën is an old hand when it comes to electric cars. From the AX Electrique to the C-Zero, it’s spent almost 30 years positioning itself at the affordable end of what has been, until recently, a technology compromised by cost and usability. In 2021, it’s stepping into the mainstream.

This meant doing things a little differently to its sister brands. The C4 is a similar size to the Peugeot 308, but the two cars are as mechanically unrelated as they are worlds apart visually. As per the C4 Cactus, the Citroën is based on a platform more commonly used by superminis and small SUVs. It’s a scaled-up version of the architecture that underpins the new 208 and 2008, giving it access to the same battery-electric powertrain. PSA’s larger EMP2 platform is designed for plug-in hybrids instead.