Skoda Citigo e iV Review and Prices

Under the skin, the Skoda Citigo e electric car is almost exactly the same as the SEAT Mii Electric and the VW e-UP – a bit like Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s custard creams. The difference being that all its mechanical bits and bobs are packaged up in a slightly different wrapper to help you tell them apart.

That said, you’d have to be a bit of a die-hard Skoda superfan to notice what separates this Citigo e electric car from the standard petrol-powered Citigo. Skoda has tweaked the front bumper of this EV so that it looks a little more sporty, and you get a body-coloured front grille cover instead of a contrasting black item. Although, this looks more like it belongs in a giant’s kitchen zesting some massive lemons than on the front of a car.

If you’re hoping these subtle tweaks mean Skoda’s designers have been busy inside the new Citigo e, you might be a bit disappointed. In fact, were it not for the green dials and two tiny Eco and Eco+ mode buttons, you’d probably think you were sitting in the standard model instead of an electric car. All the materials feel just as hard and scratchy, and there are some large exposed painted metal panels on the doors.

That said, it’s not all bad news. The Skoda Citigo e’s heating controls are all grouped together in a sensible row, and the smartphone-based infotainment system is actually pretty intuitive – providing you have a compatible phone.

There’s an impressive amount of space to get comfy in the Skoda Citigo e’s four seats, too. There’s just about room for four six-footers to get comfy – for short trips, at least – and all Citigo es come with four doors as standard.

That said, it’s a shame the rear windows don’t wind down – instead, they pop out like an old skylight – and the Skoda Citigo e can’t muster up quite as much boot space as the likes of the slightly larger Renault Zoe EV.

If you’re looking for a cheap-to-run electric car that’s dead easy to drive and still just about practical enough to occasionally carry adults, the Skoda Citigo e is well worth a look

Chances are, you won’t be filling your Skoda Citigo e with Ikea bookcases, though, but even if you pack it to the brim you’ll find its electric motor has plenty of punch to keep up with traffic around town.

In fact, the Skoda Citigo e will leap away from a set of traffic lights faster than most cars and, although it runs out of puff at motorway speeds, it never feels too strained when you accelerate hard to overtake slow-moving traffic on otherwise empty backroads.

Unfortunately, if you do plan to head out of town, you’ll want to factor in the Skoda Citigo e’s rather mediocre range. Compared with the Renault Zoe’s 250-mile range, the Skoda Citigo E’s 160-mile efforts feel a bit feeble.

Charging it up from empty to 80% full using a 40kw DC charger takes around an hour, but if you’re using a 7.2kw AC wall box, you’ll need to set aside around four-and-a-half hours for the same charge.

You shouldn’t let this put you off the Skoda Citigo e, however. It’s tiny size – even by electric city-car standard – means it’s perfectly suited to nipping through city streets and its punchy electric motor makes it feel even more fun to drive than the standard petrol-powered Citigo. If you’ve somewhere to charge it overnight, it could make the ideal electric car for an inner-city commute.

Read on for our in-depth Skoda Citigo e interior review section or head over to our Skoda Citigo e deals page to see how much you can save on your next new car.