What is it?
It might be tiny, but the Citigo-e is a pretty big deal for Skoda, being the firm’s first fully electric production model to hit showrooms.
It’s also the only version of the Citigo you can buy now – the city car lost its buzzy three-cylinder petrol options as part of an update last year – and is based on the electric Volkswagen e-Up, alongside the identical Seat Mii Electric.
But what matters most, and what is most likely to ensure success for Skoda’s smallest model, is that it is currently among the very cheapest electric cars available in the UK, undercutting not just its sibling cars but also the Renault Zoe, MG ZS EV and new Vauxhall Corsa-e by some margin.
It’s still not what you’d call cheap, as is the way with these early-adopter EVs. Prices for the Citigo-e iV SE start from £16,955 after the government’s £3500 plug-in car grant is applied, meaning it costs nearly twice as much as the cheapest version of the old car. And it’s not as if there’s an abundance of added extras, either. Although electric windows and DAB radio are standard fitments, heated seats and parking sensors add £400 to the list price and even a manual seat height adjuster is a £70 extra.
Range-topping SE L trim bumps the price up to £19,315 – bringing the Citigo into line with the £19,300 Mii Electric – and brings with it new colour options, sporty alloy wheels and a bespoke interior design. Also included at this level is a Type 2 on-board charger capable of charging at up to 60kW, which allows the battery to be refilled from zero to 80% in an hour.
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Electric City Car
Still not an econcomically, or otherwise, feasible choice for me
The bottom line for me is that this compromised, small EV is still way too expensive and limited on range, considering the complete pain of recharging away from home if I need to for the length of journeys I have to make.
The situation gets worse when you compare it to my current ICE car which cost less than half what this one does when new just a few years ago. It has a range of almost 500 miles to a tank of fuel which, stating the obvious, is almost instantaneous to fill up unlike an EV and is more practical than this car.
Running costs for a car are not just about fuel either, as all cars will need servicing (no matter what common sense tells you about lower maintenance EVs manufacturers will still charge a hefty premium to inspect it and stamp a servicing book for it to remain under warranty) as well as tyres, brakes,insurance etc. And electricity costs will rocket too once the drain on the national grid rises (as politicians will use the environment excuse yet again as an excuse to tax people more from increased energy consumption from their originally regarded 'saviour of the planet' EVs).
I don't live in London or a major city using the environment as a great excuse to tax hard-working people so there's no incentives for me there either. And those incentives shouldn't be relied on anyway as politicians have a habbit of removing them (like what happened to low vehicle excise duty for cars emitting lower levels of CO2 in 2017).
I'd love to 'do my bit' to help protect the environment but that isn't going to happen by spending almost £20k on this tiny EV, and that's after I've already paid a hefty part of that huge price via my taxes into the manufacturer's profits by way of the government EV grant. I'd consider using my bicycle more for shorter journeys or the absolute pain of public transport before wasting a HUGE amount of money on something so tiny and compromised like this.
Also, those that aren't very car-savvy can't believe that such a car like this costs so much money (i.e. people who haven't been tricked by the car manufacturer's collaborative brainwashing that EVs have to cost this much, or are hidden behind their huge price hikes of new ICE cars in order to close that price gap artificially).
Maybe the whole thing is a conspiracy to get us all to accept that we will have no choice but to sacrifice our freedom and enjoyment to be ferried around in automated electric boxes in the near future, no doubt still making some manufacturers and politicians a lot of money still.
Elephant
In the pictures it's clear there is something under the floor of the car - i'm gussing the batteries sat in a modified floor pan.
So what's the actual ground clearance of this for city speed bumps? It looks ony 10-15cm which is hopelessly low.
Best not guess from a picture
So at 150mm the same as MINI countryman and slightly more than a POLO. Are they hopelessly low?