I've been keen to get an EV since Atsuko organised us to hire a Leaf for a day several years back, and with the McLaren handling road trips with elan and the Mercedes proving rather expensive to keep as a local runabout, the stars aligned. Even better, EV prices have crashed hard this year, one might even say they're AWESOME VALUE now.
Atsuko didn't want a Korean car (don't ask), and while the BMW i3 was tempting, it's also a bit small and only fast-charges at 50 kW.
In the galaxy of Stellantis shared-platforms, Citroen aim to distinguish their C4 by making it larger, 13cm longer in the wheelbase and wider so it's nearer Focus dimensions than the supermini 208, and more comfortable, with rally-derived hydraulic bump stops to eat up our broken tarmac, extra-comfy seats and generally more attention paid to refinement. That seemed like a great match with a smooth, silent EV drivetrain, and the size means it takes a bicycle easily. The motorway range, 120-140 miles or so at 70mph, is mediocre but enough for what I want it for, and 100 kW charging means 20 minute stops if I do take it further afield.
(let me know if you can't see the photos)
Anyway, I love it! It's a really nice comfortable driving position, not feet-up like many EVs. It drives super-smoothly, and it's the first car I've had where I don't bother to avoid potholes, it just eats them up (195/60 tyres are part of this). The radar cruise works really well even down to standstill, and it's very quiet - as a car to listen to music in at 70mph it knocks the McLaren into a cocked hat. It's actually quite fun to run down a good road, with the immediate even throttle response; you have to consider the weight and the soft suspension, but that's part of the fun. As an everyday car it simplifies and de-dramatises driving in traffic, it definitely reduces stress. It has good performance at 'normal' speeds up to about 60mph; obviously with only 130hp it doesn't have the power to make big overtakes at speed that I'm used to, but I can live with that, can always take the other car out if I feel the need for speed. It's the top spec so has heated leather seats and a few other nice features.
Amusingly, the cheapest way is to charge it up a little bit at a time, rather than up to 100% in one goThis is because I've gone to an electricity tariff that has cheap off-peak electricity for five hours a night, but it's not worth getting a proper charger for the miles I do, so it charges at about 2.3 kW or about 12 kWh in those five hours. So by letting it charge about ~25% a night through the week, it's cheaper than leaving it turned on for ~18 hours to charge fully in one go
I'm now plotting to take it on a longer trip weirdly enough, just to see how the charging works out.
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Originally Posted by Crazed_Insanity
