Citroën ë-C4 review

The Citroën ë-C4 could be the electric car for you if you're struggling to decide whether to get a family car, an SUV or a coupé – it can justifiably claim to be all three.

As you might have guessed from its name, the ë-C4 is the electric version of the Citroën C4 coupé SUV and it shares all the same styling cues. Like the C4, the ë-C4 has been updated for 2025. It has a new face, as well as a new rear end. The infotainment software is new, as are the seats. 

When we recently tested the C4, we gave it a three-star rating. We were impressed by its comfy ride, quiet cruising manners and low pricing, but some rivals are roomier and sharper to drive. Can the same be said about the ë-C4, or does it make more sense in electric car form?

Citroën ë-C4 video review

We have the answer to that question, as well as whether the Citroën ë-C4 stacks up well against the Jeep Avenger and Peugeot e-2008 or, if you have a slightly bigger budget, the Kia EV3 and Smart #1. Read on to find out how we rate it...

The entry-level Citroën ë-C4 comes with a 134bhp motor and a battery with a usable capacity of 46.3kWh. Its official range is just 219 to 221 miles (depending on the trim) – less than for the entry-level VW ID 3 (241 miles).

That’s fine for nipping around town, but if you want to go further afield, you might want to swap to the top-spec version’s 50.8kWh battery. That increases the official range to 260 miles – better, but still a step below the MG4 Long Range (281 miles). The entry-level Kia EV3 manages 270 miles officially. 

So the ë-C4 is not the best long-distance electric car – but perhaps it’s quite quick? Well, not exactly. The entry-level model's official 0-62mph time of 10 seconds isn’t particularly impressive, nor is the bigger-battery version’s 9.2 seconds. Both are slower than the entry-level ID 3 (8.2 seconds) and the Jeep Avenger Electric (9.0 seconds).

In saying that, we believe there will be many people content with the ë-C4’s performance, especially around town. It’s only on the motorway where we can see a need for more oomph.

If you want something that's cosseting, the ë-C4 is a car worth looking at. Citroën has set it up to be quite soft, making for a relatively settled ride over minor imperfections on motorways, while also cushioning you well over bigger ruts and speed bumps around town.

It’s not perfect though. If you hit something with a sharp edge, such as a particularly nasty pothole, it can twang loudly. Because it’s softer, there’s more vertical body bounce along a country road strewn with lumps and bumps than there is in a Smart #1 or ID 3.

Don’t buy the ë-C4 if handling finesse is something you’re keen to enjoy – it couldn't care less about feeling sporty. That’s not to imply it’s skittish – it’s an easy car to drive, with light yet reasonably precise steering and decent grip.

There’s quite a bit of body lean and it’s nowhere near as agile as the ID 3. The Cupra Born is even sharper to drive.

At motorway speeds the ë-C4 is very quiet. It cuts out a lot of the road roar you hear in the ID 3. There’s some wind noise, but it’s not intrusive.

We count brake-pedal feel (rather than ultimate stopping power) in with refinement, too, because if you can’t stop smoothly, that’s not exactly refined, right? The ë-C4’s regenerative brakes do leave you with a light brake pedal, but they have enough progression to let you stop gracefully.

“If you're not fussed about sharp handling or super-nippy performance, which I think will be the case for many buyers, the Citroën ë-C4 serves up a fine driving experience.” – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

You sit lower down in the Citroën ë-C4 than in most SUVs, but it still offers a higher driving position than hatchbacks such as the VW ID 3. The front seats, which are new for 2025, are comfy with a good amount of padding, but a little lacking in side and thigh support. Adjustable lumbar support is standard across the range.

The ë-C4 has physical knobs and buttons for controlling the air-conditioning. They're much easier to use while you're driving than the ID 3’s frustratingly fiddly touch-sensitive controls.

All versions come with a digital driver's display, and every trim except entry-level You! comes with a head-up display.

The ë-C4’s wide windscreen pillars can cause problems at junctions. And, as in most cars with swooping, coupé-like rooflines, the view out of the rear window gives you a good idea of what it must be like to be trapped inside a post box. The Kia EV3 and VW ID 3 are easier to see out of.

That means you’ll need to rely on the ë-C4’s visibility aids. Thankfully, all trims come with rear parking sensors, with Max trim and above also getting front and lateral parking sensors and a rear-view camera.

Bright automatic LED headlights are standard across the range, while opting for Max or ë-Series trim adds intelligent high-beam.

All ë-C4s have a 10in infotainment touchscreen with updated software as part of the 2025 facelift. The graphics look modern and the lay-out is easy to make sense of, but we wish its response time was a tad quicker. Some more physical shortcut buttons would be good too. 

Smartphone mirroring (Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) is standard across the range so you can use your phone apps instead of the Citroën software. That’s handy, seeing as you have to upgrade to mid-range Plus trim to get built-in sat-nav.

With more soft-touch materials, the ë-C4 feels slightly plusher than a Hyundai Inster inside. However, it’s less colourful than that car, and the Kia EV3, the Mazda MX-30 EV and the Smart #1 feel even more luxurious – and better screwed together. The Peugeot e-2008 interior feels classier too.

“I found the area around the Citroën ë-C4's glovebox quite flimsy. Some pieces of trim even began sagging down at one point.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

While the Citroën ë-C4 isn’t particularly spacious up front, it’s roomier than it feels. The close proximity of the windscreen pillars can leave you feeling a little hemmed in, although six-footers can fit in easily enough.

That’s true even if you specify the optional panoramic glass roof, but if you’re super tall you'll find you have a little more space in the front of the VW ID 3.

There are some thoughtful storage touches, including an area for your smartphone and a tray that slides out of the passenger’s side of the dashboard. You can clip a tablet computer to the tray.

Two adults will fit in the back of the ë-C4 with greater ease than they would in the cramped Mazda MX-30 EV and they’ll have plenty of room for their feet under the front seats. However, they won’t have as much head or leg room to spare as they would in the Kia EV3 or VW ID 3. The Hyundai Inster is roomier if you slide its rear seats all the way back.

Shoulder room in the ë-C4 becomes tight if you add a middle passenger, and there’s a good chance they'll have to duck, because head room is tighter for anyone using the raised middle seat.

The ë-C4’s rear seats don’t do anything clever, such as slide or recline like the Inster’s. As with most small electric cars, you can fold down the 60/40 split backrests by pulling levers next to the outer rear head restraints.

We were able to fit five carry-on suitcases in the ë-C4’s boot. That’s better than the MX-30 EV and Smart #1, and the same as the ID 3, but less than the seven you’ll fit in a Kia Niro EV. 

The ë-C4’s boot floor is height-adjustable, with only a small lip to lift luggage over when it’s in its highest position. If you raise the floor, it levels out the extended boot space when the rear seat backs are dropped down. There’s some useful under-floor storage for the charging cables.

“If you can do without the Citroën ë-C4’s middle seat and want more seating flexibility, I’d suggest looking at the Hyundai Inster.” – Neil Winn, Deputy reviews editor

When viewed against similar-sized electric cars, such as the Kia Niro EV and VW ID 3, the Citroën ë-C4 seems like a bit of a bargain.

However, if you want your range to be somewhat competitive, you’ll need the range-topping ë-C4, which gets a larger battery. At that point the price starts encroaching on the kind of money those rivals go for (the list price nudges above the £30,000 mark).

Both versions of the ë-C4 have a maximum charging speed of 100kW, which allows for a 10-80% charge in around half an hour. A 7kW home wall box will charge it from empty to full in around seven and a half hours.

We’d stick with the ë-C4's entry-level You! trim because it keeps the costs down to a competitive level. It gets plenty of standard kit, including 18in alloy wheels, automatic dual-zone air-conditioning, electrically heated and adjustable door mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, cruise control, keyless entry and start, and a 10in infotainment touchscreen.

Stepping up to mid-spec Plus trim adds a few extra features, including a larger driver’s display (7in rather than 5in), a head-up display and sat-nav. Max trim adds electrically operated, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel. Max is the only trim available on bigger-battery ë-C4s.

Although the ë-C4 didn’t feature in our 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey, Citroën as a brand came seventh out of 31 car makers. That puts it below Toyota and Honda but above Ford, Nissan, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Renault and MG.

Similarly, the three-year warranty you currently get is pretty average, and no match for Hyundai’s five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty or Kia’s seven-year, 100,000-mile package.

The list of safety equipment you get as standard across the ë-C4 range includes automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assist and speed-limit information. Stepping up to Max trim adds blind-spot monitoring and a more advanced AEB system that can detect cyclists. 

Disappointingly, the ë-C4 only gets a four-star safety rating from Euro NCAP, whereas rivals – including the VW ID 3 – get the full five. There were concerns over passenger leg injuries in the frontal crash test, and the potential for the front-seat occupants to collide with each other in side impacts because of a lack of a central airbag.

An alarm and immobiliser come as standard on all versions.

“I think if the larger battery was available with the cheaper Plus or You! trims, the Citroën ë-C4 would be a lot more attractive to buyers.” – Lawrence Cheung, New cars editor

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