There may still remember my previous post on the introduction of the Citroen C-ZERO the first time. It’s a Citroen-badged Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Like its French cousin Peugeot – which offers its own version called the i0n – Citroen has added an electric car to its range by buying off the peg.
It’s a good looking car, in that slightly quirky, modern city car style that the Japanese excel at. It suits the Citroen badges then, as the French company has a long history of avant-garde design.
Citroen C-ZERO is all about its powertrain. It’s a plug-in electric vehicle, with a lithium ion battery pack and electric motor powering it. It requires a seven-hour charge to completely fill those batteries – or a 30-minute quick charge to 80 percent if you can find a high voltage power outlet. Its range is about 80 miles in normal use.
Like as Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV, Citroen has added a more conventional automatic transmission to the C-Zero. Instead of the multi-mode item in the Mitsubishi the C-Zero simply offers you Drive, Reverse, Park and Neutral. The means by which the C-Zero differentiates its power delivery and driving modes is via a two-stage accelerator. Use the first portion of travel and the C-Zero is in Eco mode, though push through and it gives you all of its power. Nothing radical there then.
It does give Citroen a lead in the UK market, but Nissan’s Leaf is going to be a very tough rival for the C-Zero and its Mitsubishi and Peugeot badged relatives.
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