Value for money is the goal with new saloon version of leisurely family hatchback
Plenty of car makers still seem intent on forcing SUVs into as many niches of the market as possible, but a few, such as Citroën, clearly now believe that at least some customers are ready to move back into lower, sleeker options.It’s actually becoming quite difficult to keep up with the number of alternative crossover-style vehicles being introduced by Stellantis’s French brands. Citroën kicked us off with its jacked-up, fastback C5 X in 2021, which stablemate Peugeot then launched a sibling for, in 2022, in the form of the 408.The subject of this week’s road test is a more compact and accessible take on a similar theme and comes in electric-only form in the UK. The Citroën ë-C4 X is ostensibly an enlarged version of the ë-C4 hatchback, but the ways in which it has grown may not be quite the ones you’d expect on the basis of its model nomenclature. Rather than growing upwards, the ë-C4 X has been stretched a little lengthways, and given a bigger boot and more elongated proportions, in a way much more redolent of saloon adaptations of mid-sized hatches from the 1980s and 1990s than any modern crossover conversion.Being something of a crossover hatchback in five-door form, the Citroën C4 has passed on plenty of SUV design DNA to this ë-C4 X in any case. The resultant car has an interestingly blended sort of body profile, being part crossover SUV, part hatchback and part saloon – but, quite typical of Citroën, also 100% unusual.Range at a glanceCitroën’s decision to make the ë-C4 X an electric-only model in UK showrooms keeps the range here simple. The car is offered over three trim levels, Sense, Shine and Shine Plus. Extra active safety functionality is the main lure to spend more, with Citroën’s Safety Pack Plus upgrading the AEB system and adding extra traffic sign recognition on mid- and upper-trim cars.Three-phase AC charging, at 11kW, is an option (and unlikely to be in much demand in the UK), while the Hype Black interior ambience (£800, as fitted to our test car) could become a de facto trim level itself on mid- and upper-level models.
Source: Autocar
