Citroen’s grant-adjusted pricing for its e-C4 model demands a judicious eye
As one of the first of the EV-makers to deal with the government’s revised EV grant programmes, Citroen has cut the price of its top-spec variant, highlights Iain Robertson, to sneak it in below the new £35,000 threshold, but he urges ‘caveat emptor’!
Grants and financial programmes are highly divisive issues. When the British government first contemplated rebate schemes by way of encouraging car buyers to opt for the cleaner, greener models in a carmaker’s line-up, an air of inevitability settled around the various cut-off points. Hybrids were the first attraction and those buyers selecting a posher Lexus RX400h, rather than the lower grade Toyota Prius, benefited from free road tax and free access (as long as it was pre-registered) into London’s centre, from the comfort of their business-like SUV (the 4×4 system of which was actually rubbish, if asked to tackle much beyond a gravel road).
Those early vehicles were granted a £5,000 list price reduction from a myopic government. It was not a situation that lasted for long, forcing Toyota to rear its hands in faux horror, when it was realised that the RX model was not quite as green as the civil servants regulating the process. Yet, Mitsubishi’s PHEV that promised sky-high and seldom replicable fuel economy figures continued for almost a decade in the government’s good books, even though it was pretty much a marketing ‘con-job’ too.
While admitting personally to being a critic of EVs that only shift the ecological finger of blame from petrol pumps to power stations, I do recognise the value of cleaner air and a potential reduction in the drain of fossil fuel supplies. Yet, being able to offer £5,000 ‘discounts’ was welcomed widely by manufacturers that needed something to offset their exorbitant price schedules, even though much confusion reigned over which vehicles qualified. Until slashed recently to £2,500, it had been at £3,500 for almost two years.
Early EV adopters have already received their just rewards from a motor trade that simply does not want their trade-ins, which more than obviates any initially perceived benefits. Technological advancements both in batteries and technical trim levels mean that short-range, ill-equipped EVs and, to a lesser extent, plug-in hybrids, that cannot be upgraded to fresher technology are deemed worthless and reveal residual values markedly lower than their conventionally fuelled alternatives. The consumer, as usual, picks up the tab. You also have to remember that the government is only being generous with whatever tax grab it already makes from the consumer. Grants are NOT free funds.
Thus, Citroen has felt forced into cutting £550 off the price of its top-spec e-C4 Shine Plus model from over £35,000 (the new grant cut-off figure) to £34,995. Including the new £2,500 grant level, this reduces the price to the consumer to a more affordable £32,495, which, to be frank, is still far too costly for a compact hatchback, electric, or not. Naturally, its consumer ‘offer’ is bolstered with a ‘free’ PodPoint 7kW home-charger that is valued at a notional £509, although whether this figure also includes the £350 installation grant is not mentioned in despatches. Still, as it is ‘free’ but also carries an unreliability penalty, perhaps potential Citroen EV customers ought to contemplate their domestic charger options? Personally, I would recommend the clutter-free, smart-tech and exceptionally compact SYNC EV charger instead, to which the grant still applies, of course.
Citroen states that this list price reduction falls entirely into line with its ‘Fair Pricing’ initiative that forms an element of the Citroen Advance UK strategic plan. Having said so, the e-C4 range still starts at a grant-inclusive price of £30,895 for the Sense Plus variant, with the mid-range Shine being £31,845. When you consider that a 127bhp, 1.2-litre turbo-petrol version starts at £24,055, a premium of £6,845 for a battery-powered alternative highlights that Citroen is only playing a market pricing game, which suggests that cutting the list price of its top variant to allow it to slip below the new grant threshold is simply being opportunistic. Please do not worry for Citroen! It still makes a handsome profit on each EV it sells.
All new e-C4 models feature a 50kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a 100kW (the equivalent of 136bhp) electric motor. With a WLTP-approved range of up to 217 miles on a single charge, which amounts to somewhere in the region of 170mls in real world motoring, a new e-C4 is said to exceed the daily range requirements of most private and fleet drivers. Supporting CCS rapid charging as standard on all models, an 80% charge takes the now customary 30 minutes, when hooked-up to a publicly accessible 100kW rapid charger. For regular domestic charging a Type 2 charging cable is included as standard, allowing a regular 7.4kW charger to reach a 100% charge in a mere seven hours and 30 minutes. However, the five-year warranty and ‘free’ PodPoint charger deal applies only to retail customers and is not extended to Motability, Fleet, or Business channels, a factor worth noting.
If you still fancy an electric Citroen on your driveway, it is worth being aware that Citroen e-C4 models are comprehensively specified, with the following equipment as standard: LED headlights, 18.0-inch diameter alloy wheels, 10.0-inch high-resolution touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, Citroen Connect Nav with TomTom Live Services, Active Safety Brake, Lane Keeping Assist, electric parking brake, rear parking sensors, rear parking camera, electrically folding door mirrors, dual-zone climate control and Citroen Connect Box Emergency and Assistance System. For improved comfort, all models come with Citroen’s Progressive Hydraulic Cushions suspension system and Advanced Comfort seats. Most of those items happen to be standard across the entire C4 range, electric, or not.
A smattering of other carmakers will soon hop onto this sub-£35k marketing bandwagon but you should not consider it to be a ‘true’ price cut, because it is not. With 8.75 years to run before the intended governmental shut-off date for fossil-fuelled vehicles, there is plenty of time to enjoy the dependability and, in comparison with EVs, lower prices of petrol/diesel cars.
Interesting viewpoint as always. You’ll remember there used to be a steep premium on diesels with the excuse that they sold in lower numbers. When their sales graph reversed they still had a price premium.
I once asked a Skoda UK boss why an Octavia cost so much more in the UK than it did in Prague. Eventually he came clean and said it was priced at what the market would bear.
It begs the question to you: what price should the e-C4 be?
The ICE alternatives would be too tempting for me.