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Silent, spacious and... well, insipid: Citroën's electric C-Zero car

Nice concept but still impractical - despite its Japanese heritage

Regenerative braking and turning Japanese

Limited dash info

The C-Zero's dashboard. Note there's no range indication

It is tall and the upright seating means that in no way does it have any hint of sports car, but it does handle better than, frankly, how its looks suggest it will. That’s down to the batteries being right at the bottom of the C-Zero, meaning the centre of gravity is way lower than if this was an internal combustion engine car.

Braking is fine, discs at the front, drums (yes, drums) at the rear. I’ve read car reviews which says that regenerative braking, as installed on the C-Zero, spoils the pedal feel, reducing the bite, but I couldn’t detect anything of this nature. I even tried driving in my socks and couldn't feel anything untoward.

One of the reasons the C-Zero doesn’t however feel particularly Citroën is that it’s actually a Mitsubishi. Citroën might want us to think it’s a platform share with Mitsubishi but really this Citroën is as French as sushi.

The Japanese roots come from Mitsubishi's i-MiEV, a Kei-class car of the type which was the only thing you were allowed to own in Tokyo if you didn’t have a parking space. Essentially, the C-Zero is a rebadged i-MiEV.

Where's the gadgets?

This imbues the C-Zero with a number of good features. It’s very well packaged; that is to say you can get four decent-sized adults into it with a bit of shopping in the back. The seats fold flat and the first trip I took in the car was to deliver a very large, boxed printer. This being The Register I should mention the make and model – a Xerox 8570. Solid wax, an excellent device.

The Citroën team has tried to inject some Gallic tendencies. The ride is a little softer than the Mitsubishi and the interior is sparser. In fact, for such an expensive car, it’s very sparse. No sat-nav, no keyless go, the instruments don’t give an expected range, excellent air conditioning but no climate control, no parking sensors, no powered sunroof. In fact, none of the refinements you’d expect at this price point.

It has the ambience of the car you rent on holiday because you’ve overspent on the hotel. Doors clang rather than thunk. This is very much a small Japanese city car and not something which follows in the ruts of the 2CV.

Not many toys on the inside

You'd expect more luxury for £25,000

There needs to be more Frenchness to it to justify the chevrons. And given that it needs to be plugged in for a charge every “100” miles, a two hour lunch break is probably a good idea.

There, I said it. The thing about electric cars is everyone always concentrates on the need to plug them in. It’s a scenario every Reg reader will be familiar with as they start to worry if their mobe has enough charge to last them to the end of the day.

It was once said that you should never turn down the opportunity for three things: sex, food or going to the toilet. Wags added “charge your iPhone” to the list and so it is for an electric car. It’s magnified by car reviews because when you get something to test you want to go somewhere in it – and that somewhere isn’t Tescos. For a daily commute, all the electric stuff aside, is the C-Zero is a good little car.

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