Citroën C1 ev'ie

Report by Charis Whitcombe

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Electric cars. And I don't mean 'hybrids', with both an engine and an electric motor, but fully electric machines with just a battery and electric motor under the bonnet. Great idea but there are precious few you can actually buy at the moment. Yes, there's the Tesla Roadster - the electric supercar - assuming you have around £94,000 to spend. But even then, there's a whopping great waiting list.

Here, however, is an electric car you can order right now, directly from The Electric Car Corporation (www.eccplc.com). The Citroën C1 ev'ie is the UK's first four-seater, all-electric, production-ready car. But there are plenty of drawbacks: not least the fact that you need around £17,500 to buy one.

On the upside, there are no tail-pipe emissions, absolutely none. No carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, unburnt hydrocarbons, particulate matter or any harmful substance. In fact, there isn't even an exhaust pipe. And if you live in London, Mayor Boris Johnson has introduced some pretty tasty incentives, such as no road tax, no London Congestion Charge, plus free parking (and even free recharging) in many areas.

What's more, there's no petrol or diesel to pay for. Instead, you just charge your car up overnight from an ordinary domestic socket, which typically costs less than £1. And ignore the recent scare stories about crash safety: that applied to certain electric 'cars' such as the G-Wiz - which is really an electric quadricycle and hence exempt from the usual safety rules. You wouldn't want to have an argument with a damp cardboard box in one, let alone a lorry. But the ev'ie is really a Citroën C1 with the electric gubbins replacing the engine, so you get the choice of three or five doors, plus all the standard airbags, impact protection and safety features you'd expect on a modern car.

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