CITROEN SPIKES CACTUS

New C4 moves up in the world, goes electric and kicks the Cactus into touch

Remember the old C4? It was the middlest of middle of the road hatches and when it died two years ago, precisely no one noticed. We’d already moved on, swayed by the cutesy, bubbly charms of the Cactus. But now that’s going too, and in its place we have this.

Citroen has decided to rise above the Focus and Golf competition. Literally, because it’s a crossover complete with suspension lift, body cladding, slanted insecty lights front and rear, and a curious vent behind the front wheel that looks like it might be a refugee from the Cactus.

Although a size up, it’s built on the same CMP platform as the Peugeot 208. That means a similar petrol (99bhp to 153bhp) and diesel (108bhp to 128bhp) line-up, albeit with a bit more grunt in the top models. But the big news is the e-C4, which, like the e-208, gets a 50kWh battery that feeds a 136bhp, 221lb ft motor. That means 0–62mph in 9.7 seconds, and, confusingly given its enlarged size and weight, the same claimed 217-mile range as the e-208.

Expect automatic and manual gearboxes, front-wheel drive – all the usual hatchback features. Citroen has even reined itself in on the interior jewellery that has afflicted it recently and the result looks simpler and better thought out.

Citroen claims this is its fifth electric car, but given one is the Ami urban runaround, two more are vans and the other is the C5 Aircross hybrid, we’d be putting those to one side and claiming this e-C4 as our giant leap. Ollie Marriage