• Plenty of room for four adults
• Similar interior to petrol-powered C4
• Boot space roughly matches rivals

How much space is there?

The e-C4 is designed to rival family hatchbacks such as the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen ID.3, but it comes with a jacked-up, SUV-esque attitude and a coupe-style body shape. It’s a strange concoction, and the result is not quite as spacious as you might imagine, although nobody would ever call the e-C4 cramped.

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There’s adequate seating for four adults and the headroom is acceptable despite the swooping roofline. The raised ride height makes access easier and there’s a good amount of interior storage, except for the pathetically tiny glovebox.

Boot space and storage

The e-C4’s boot is exactly the same size as that of the petrol-engined C4, which is a happy result of the car being designed from the outset with electric power in mind. That means the boot measures 380 litres with the rear seats upright – about the same as you’d find in a VW Golf, but less than you get in a Nissan Leaf or a Volkswagen ID.3.

Fold the back seats down and the space expands to 1,250 litres, which is still more or less what you get in an ID.3. In general terms, therefore, the e-C4 is as practical as some of its closest rivals, although cars such as the Kia e-Niro and SsangYong Korando e-Motion offer considerably more space.

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The e-C4 does have smart design on its side, though. Citroen has fitted an adjustable boot floor, which allows you to trade outright space for a flatter boot floor so there’s no lip to get your heavy objects over. The other advantage of this ‘false floor’ is there’s somewhere to hide valuables. 

Is it easy to park?

All e-C4s come with rear parking sensors as standard, which is an advantage in a car such as this. The slightly unconventional shape makes it difficult to work out exactly where the rear end is, or to see what’s lurking behind the bumper.

Move up the range, and the slightly less necessary front parking sensors are added to the mix, as well as a parking camera, which really helps with that rear-end visibility. But with relatively compact dimensions (the e-C4 isn’t quite as big as the ride height makes it look), parking shouldn’t prove too difficult whatever equipment is fitted.

Safety

• Four-star Euro NCAP crash test score
• Disappointing result masks solid occupant protection
• Lots of standard safety equipment

Citroen was angling for a five-star safety rating when it launched the new C4 and the electric e-C4, but that didn’t quite materialise in the Euro NCAP crash test. Scores for the protection of adult and child occupants were relatively strong, but it was the protection of vulnerable road users and the safety systems fitted that let the car down.

The French company has packed the e-C4 with safety equipment, although there’s a two-tier range. Lowlier models get a more basic safety pack with autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance and driver attention alerts, as well as the obligatory Isofix child seat fixings in the rear. More luxurious cars, meanwhile, come with improved autonomous emergency braking and “extended” traffic sign recognition technology.

However, the Euro NCAP test suggested the functionality of these systems was not up to scratch, with the emergency braking tech’s response to pedestrians deemed “marginal”. The driver alert system was only rated adequate, too, but the speed assistance and lane departure technology all worked well.

WATCH: Citroen e-C4 Euro NCAP crash test