Citroen C1 Ev'ie electric car hits UK
70 miles of driving for 90p
Sadly, it's not available with a government subsidy (that doesn't hit for another two years), but you can now get a 'real' electric car, courtesy of Citroen and its C1 Ev'ie.
Yes, you can pick up an electric car that looks like your average city car rather than Noddy's weekend runaround. That's because this is an average city car - the main body is based on the Citroen C1, with the Electric Car Corporation (ECC) throwing in the eco goodies.
The UK's first four-seater electric car can travel up to 70 miles without recharging. When you do plug it into a 13-amp socket, it's likely to add around 90p to your electric bill, taking around six to seven hours for a full charge. No slouch when it's on the road either, clocking up a nippy 60mph, which should be adequate for getting to the supermarket, doing the school run or cruising to the coast. Just as long as the coast isn't more than a 70-mile round journey away.
Special driving skills needed? Not at all, claims ECC chief executive David Martell: We believe this is the first serious alternative to a petrol or diesel car. It drives just like a petrol car and has excellent capacity for use in any town or city in the UK.'
If you want one, £16,850 gets you in the queue for one of the first batch. 500 are being made this year, with between 2,000 and 4,000 in 2010. We suspect many more once that government subsidy kicks in around 2011.
Link: Electric Car Corporation (via BBC)
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By aminorjourney
3|05|2009 18:50
I'm an EV enthusiast and I can't wait to see a regular EV on the roads which really does live up to all the hype.
However, it seems this car isn't all it seems. According to the DVLA it's still a petrol car. If it were converted it would show "electric" on the DVLA's system. Plus, one of the launch photos had been severely photoshopped. I'm suspicious. Check out http://tinyurl.com/cmksx5 to see what I mean....