Citroen C1 ev’ie road test

Citroen C1 ev'ie image There’s a lot of scepticism about electric cars, not helped by the fact that the most commonplace model in the UK is the GoinGreen G-Wiz – which is less an electric car, more of a quadricylcing accident waiting to happen. However, things are looking up for drivers who don’t want to lose any pleasure in driving, with the launch of the Citroen C1 ev’ie, an emissions-free version of the French carmaker’s class-leading city car. Because that’s what ev’ie is – a C1 that just happens to have had its internal combustion engine removed and replaced with an electric powertrain by The Electric Car Corporation (ECC).

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A 30kW (58bhp) motor powers the ev’ie, drawing it energy from 25 lithium ion batteries and allowing it to pull away smoothly and strongly. There are two gears, forward and reverse: the forward gear has a ratio similar to the C1’s third gear, which provides the best balance of performance. The C1 ev’ie is very easy to drive: turn the key in the ignition, wait for all the lights in the display to come on, engage the gear, squeeze the throttle and you’re off. You get up to a speed of 30-40mph fairly quickly (and noiselessly) and if on a stretch of open road, you can eventually get up to a top speed of 60mph. The one drawback of the C1 ev’ie is its 60-75-mile range. A full charge takes six to seven hours, so if you have a garage, it’s straightforward to just plug it in to a standard 13 amp domestic socket and charge it overnight.

Read the full Citroen C1 ev’ie road test

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