Styling
Citroen has done a good job with the updated the look of the C4, unlike when it butchered the poor old
C4 Cactus for the
risible facelift in 2018. Anyway, the new C4 (and, by extension, C4 X spin-offs) have the distinctive new triple-lamp array at the front, which in a way maintains the 'chevron' look its predecessor, a look which is mirrored with the rear-light signatures. It's tidy work and freshens the C4 for 2025 and beyond, so we approve - even if the general swoopy shape and chunky, crossover-esque aesthetic of the
pre-facelift model is retained. One thing, though: you used to be able to tell a petrol or diesel C4 from an all-electric e-C4 from a distance, as the former cars had silver-grey detailing in the bumpers and the 'Airbumps', whereas the EV version had bright blue instead. Now, though, they are all-but identical: same bumpers, same lower trims, same door-sill inserts, same 18-inch bicolour diamond-cut 'Amber' alloy wheels. The only difference is the boot badge, preceded on the zero-emission Citroen with a little blue 'ë' emblem whereas the Hybrid has a plain 'C4' logo.
Interior
Citroen would like you to think of this car as a direct rival to the
Volkswagen Golf, and other family hatchbacks of its ilk. Now, while that's not a problem in terms of interior space, standard equipment, pricing and drivetrains, to a degree, the cabin finishing still leaves a lot to be desired. We've said this for a few years now, but while Citroen has had its wacky exterior-styling mojo back for more than a decade, it seems to have forgotten to make interesting interiors to go with the striking bodywork. There's nothing inherently
wrong with the C4/e-C4's cabin(s), you understand. But there's a sea of black and charcoal plastics, really only broken up by a thin strip of diagonal trim on the door cards and nothing else. It all works fine. It all looks... OK, in that kind of old-fashioned, pragmatic fashion black car interiors always used to. But it's in no way upmarket in feel, or grand of design, even if the watchstrap 'leather' (it's fabric) of the Max-spec seats is easy on the eye and supremely comfortable to sit on.
All Citroen has changed for the facelift models, by the way, is to add ChatGPT to the still-dated ten-inch infotainment system, while also enhancing the look and clarity of the seven-inch digital instrument cluster. Neither display resets the parameters of the technological in-car era in which we now live, of course, but they function adequately. And finally, about the only differences between the cabins of the C4 and e-C4 relate to the 'remaining propulsion source' gauge in the cluster (it's obviously a small pump for the Hybrid and a little recharging box with a plug on a tether for the EV), as well as the button at the base of the gear selector toggle - it's 'M' on the petrol, for a manual override of its six-speed dual-clutch transmission, whereas it's 'B' on the e-C4 to engage its stronger levels of regenerative braking effort.
Practicality
With enough space onboard for four adults, that unusual drawer-and-iPad-stand mechanism in the dashboard, and a boot that's an identical size from C4 to e-C4 - 380 litres with all seats in use, 1,250 litres with the second row folded away - these Citroens should slot easily into any '2+2' family's life with little difficulty, and there's no real penalty in picking either drivetrain when it comes to the practicality of the French hatchback. Those who regularly load lots of clobber into the boot might want to avoid the four-door Citroen C4 X, though, because even though it has a much larger rating on paper (510 litres minimum), the aperture into which you can heft things is smaller and narrower, so the non-X C4 with its big rear tailgate makes more sense in that regard. Coming back to the hatchbacks, those who want to tow will need the Hybrid: it has a braked-trailer rating of 1,200kg, but there is no figure quoted at all for the e-C4.
Performance
Normally, an electric car's instant torque would win out over what is a modest hybrid system, but even with the bigger battery and more potent motor fitted to later e-C4s, it's still quite a low-powered EV, with peaks of 156hp and 260Nm. As with every Stellantis zero-emission machine, you only get those figures with the car in Sport mode; in Normal, it makes less power again (136hp, like the original 46kWh, net, e-C4) and then in Eco it drops even more (to around 110hp). And even with the 51kWh net battery in this revised, top-end model, you're very rarely going to be flinging the car around in Sport mode. You'll be in Normal, at best, to try and preserve your voltage.
Thus, the C4 Hybrid unsurprisingly is the winner when it comes to straight-line speed. Its quoted maximums from its electrically enhanced 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine are 136hp and 230Nm, yet we know from
recent tries of this same drivetrain in other Stellantis cars that you can feel the additional oomph of the electric motor in this set-up. Which is why, even on paper, the C4 Hybrid has a 0-62mph time that's fully 1.2 seconds quicker than that of the e-C4 54kWh (8.0 versus 9.2 seconds), but naturally we've already said you're often driving the EV in Normal mode (with 136hp), so the performance gap between the two of them feels even greater than you'd imagine.
Plus, we really like this hybrid powertrain. The 1.2-litre three-cylinder makes all the right noises and is perfectly sweet as it revs out, and while the six-speed e-DSC6 isn't the slickest operator in the world, it operates wholly acceptably for the sort of everyday runaround the Citroen is. There's nothing wrong with the 115kW electric drivetrain either, of course, but we just prefer the way the Hybrid 136 performs, and we suspect lots of customers would do as well.
And then there's the whole economy/usability thing. Sure, we can all go through the argument of 'who drives more than 200 miles a day in one hit on a regular basis?' that is often raised in defence of the medium-range EV, but the simple fact is the Hybrid C4 is just more relaxing if you're going to do plenty of miles in a week. For example, we covered 359 miles in the e-C4, including a short stay away in Whitby, 114 miles each way from base. And there's certainly lots to commend the EV, because it's very efficient, managing anything between 4.1 miles/kWh on local roads at a 30mph average, up to a deeply impressive 4.6 miles/kWh on the run up to Whitby from Sherwood Forest, at an average 45mph. In the end, it achieved an overall 4.3 miles/kWh on a mix of all types of road, and for an electric car that is genuinely superb.
But the very thing that keeps the Citroen efficient as an EV, its midsized battery pack, also limits its outright range. We found we were getting about 200 miles from a charge, in warm weather and with no electrical drains (like the A/C) on in the cabin (windows down, people). That's not bad for a more affordable EV, sure, and it will suit most people's daily needs more than happily, but when a near-full battery is showing a maximum range of 258 miles, you're always thinking about whether you can make a longer trip - like, for example, to Whitby from the East Midlands for a weekend break - without having to stop for a charge, or whether you need to hypermile it behind a truck on the A1 to save electricity to get you to your ultimate destination. As the driver, your brain is always computing things behind the wheel in a smaller-battery electric like this.
Whereas the C4 Hybrid turned up with full tank of unleaded and its distance-to-empty readout was a colossal 546 miles. We didn't drive it as much as the e-C4, covering 115 miles in total, and to be fair it was down to three-quarters of a tank at the end with 360 miles showing, so short of its original range claim (remainder of tank plus distance covered = 475 miles, not 546) - one for the EV fans to prod anti-EV folk with when they're on about electric cars not doing their claimed range. But it's evident that 350-450 miles from a tank is going to be a doddle with the C4 Hybrid without any effort whatsoever, mainly because it achieved a healthy 48.6mpg during our week with it. So the C4 Hybrid performs better in terms of speed, and it also performs better in terms of eking out its propulsion resources.
Ride & Handling
We hate to sound like we're bashing the Citroen e-C4 here, but again the C4 wins the day here because of the usual petrol v electric mismatch - weight. With 'only' a 54kWh gross battery pack, the e-C4 isn't the lardiest EV in the world at 1,571kg, but that's still a whopping 236kg in excess of the C4 Hybrid, which comes in at 1,335kg. Now, as these are both Citroens, they're focused on comfort over speed, so when we say the handling of the Hybrid is superior to that of the e-C4, we're talking in relative terms here. The petrol-electric model is still wallowy in corners and equipped with overly light, feel-free steering, but the C4 just feels happier on the brakes, happier at making rapid direction changes, and generally happier when its suspension is fully loaded as it deals with lumps and bumps at speed than the e-C4 in the same circumstances.
However, there's no separating them when it comes to ride comfort, because both are lovely and squidgy in the midrange speeds, smoothing out even appalling surfaces into near-non-events, while they're both supremely serene around town and also on the motorway. Obviously, outright rolling refinement is one area where the e-C4 beats the petrol-electric Hybrid, because its lack of an internal-combustion engine means it doesn't have to quell the vibrations of a 1.2-litre three-pot, and its linear, one-speed-transmission acceleration also makes it stress-free on motorways and fast dual-carriageway A-roads, in situations where you want to regain lost pace in the wake of slower-moving traffic moving in front of you to perform an overtake and then pulling back over into a left-hand lane.
Value
Another major blow for the e-C4 here, bearing in mind that both Citroens were in plush Max specification, so had the identical amount of toys fitted as standard. And a good amount of toys you get too, plus both test vehicles had the desirable £500 Techno Pack, incorporating a 360-degree camera system, adaptive cruise control with stop and go, and a 15-watt wireless smartphone charging pad. But when a basic C4 starts from £22,595, the cheapest e-C4 at £27,650 is immediately commanding a £5,000 premium, which is a 22.4 per cent increase. Without any options, our Max C4 Hybrid was £27,425 - so still less than a bog-basic e-C4 - and once options were factored in, the price difference remains relatively huge: £27,925 for the Hybrid and £32,755 for the e-C4, a gap of £4,830. It's particularly disappointing that a heat pump is a cost extra for the electric Citroen, at £450, and so is three-phase 11kW AC charging for £300. A 17 per cent premium to have the e-C4 54kWh Max cannot be underestimated at this sort of value point of the market, which is why the Hybrid appears to make so much more sense for anyone but business users who can make the most of the tax advantages associated with a 0g/km CO
2 output on the EV.
Verdict
The overall rating at the top of this chart is for the Citroen C4 Hybrid 136 Max, which wins this head-to-head battle with its e-C4 relation in the same spec (3.5 out of five) by virtue of the fact that it's faster, it has tauter handling and, crucially, it is almost five-grand cheaper than the zero-emission car. These two Citroen hatchbacks are a great case study as to the big question right now, which is this: if we've all got to transition to electric cars, why are they so relatively expensive for what is, at the end of the day, a less usable vehicle in regular driving circumstances?
It's clear, though, that the updates to the entire C4/e-C4 family are worthwhile, even if we wish the French company would push the boat out when it comes to interior design. But having identified the C4 Hybrid as the pick of the range, is it the best C-segment hatchback going right now? Well... no, probably not. It's comfortable in the extreme and good value, and the exterior design is certainly eye-catching. But the handling is woolly, even on the part-petrol car, and the infotainment could definitely do with some serious updating too. It's therefore a very strong choice in this sector, the C4 Hybrid 136, but it's not the absolute best of the breed.
