The new Citroen C-Zero

Feb 6
14:51

2011

Rob Morgan

Rob Morgan

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With the current huge rises in fuel cost, is the new Citroen C-Zero the answer. This article gives details of this fantastic new 100% electrical car from Citroen.

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With the current rises in fuel prices,The new Citroen C-Zero Articles it is no wonder the leading car manufacturers such as Citroen are working hard to produce cars that will no longer rely on this expensive source, and Citroen have done exactly this with the C-Zero.

The Citroen C-Zero is a small super-mini/city car that is 100% electrically powered. This great little car from Citroen has been developed in collaboration with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC), and expands the Citroen small vehicle range.

The Citroen C-Zero is designed to facilitate urban mobility, being small in size, quick to charge and to come with a sufficient range for daily commutes, and with a range of 81 miles, this is well achieved.

For Citroen, this is not the first electric car that they have produced, in the early 1990’s Citroen created an electrical variation of the Citroen Saxo, but this proved to be too expensive because of the cost of the batteries and the limited range that the car produced at the time. This model didn’t really get past the experimental stage, and there was only 5,500 units sold. Luckily with the advances in technology this time will be better for Citroen.

The super little Citroen C-Zero will give you 47 kilowatts of power, or 64 horsepower, and 3000 to 6000 rpm. The impressive little motor is powered by Lithium-ion batteries which are located in the centre of the underneath of the vehicle, and the battery weight is at a minimum compared to traditional batteries, due to the supreme advances in technology.

When it comes to performance, the Citroen C-Zero has a maximum speed of 130km/hr, which is around 81 mph. It achieves the 0-62 in 15 seconds, and 37-56mph in 6 seconds. You should get a range of around 130kms or 81 miles, but with use of the air conditioning and radio, this may lower slightly.

The batteries will take 6 hours to fully charge when just using a simple 220V electrical outlet, although via an external 400V terminal at 125A, it is easily recharged to 80% in only 30 minutes.

The Citroen C-Zero comes well equipped with 4 comfortable seats, 166 litre boot, power steering, ESP, air conditioning and electric windows. It is designed to be driver friendly, and all come with keyless go as standard, as long as the key fob is inside the car, one push of a button and a beep will announce the start of the vehicle. The car will then proceed to drive like a car that has an automatic transmission.  One small change would be that the fuel gauge is now replaced with a battery indicator to tell you how much charge is left, just like your mobile phone!

Although the Citroen C-Zero comes at quite an expensive price, estimated around £35,000, running costs and advantages are worth the initial outlay. You can recharge the vehicle for as little as £1.50 per 93 miles, which is an impressive 2p per mile, compared to 11p per mile for a petrol car.

 All Citroen C-Zero’s are road fund licence free, and qualify for 100% discount for the London congestion charge, which will save the driver up to £2000 per year. This is based on the average commuter or city worker entering the charged zone on average 200 days per year, at a cost £10.00 per day, and some areas of London are giving huge discounts for parking when in your Citroen C-Zero. The borough of Hackney for example is offering 100% discount for parking, saving you around £1750 per year.

Although they are unlikely to be available in the used Citroen market for a few months, when they do become available it will be interesting to see how well they will sell and at what prices. Will they lead the way in the electric used car and used Citroen car market? Only time will tell…..

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