WESTERN SALOON SETS THE BAR (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 70

The e-C4 X is 'the best of a hatchback, with the modernity of an SUV and the timelessness of a saloon', according to Citroen. Or you could simply see it as a sedan version of the brand's quirky all-electric e-C4 hatch. Either way, it's an ambitiously styled four-door family EV that's compact yet spacious, with a simply enormous boot. Here, we look at the pre-facelift 2022-2024-era versions of this model.

Modelsword count: 4

5dr compact saloon (EV)

Historyword count: 222

X seems to mean different things to different brands. Citroen doesn't see the letter as designating an SUV. Instead, for them, it references what the brand calls 'the crossroads of different universes', a melding together of different genres, the sort of thing that by 2022 we'd already seen in the company's large C5 X. With the e-C4 X, the styling brief was rather less ambitious, but it still hoped to blend hatchback, crossover and sedan genres together into one appealing compact shape that a first glance, could fall into any of those three categories. By 2022, we'd seen something similar (but rather more dramatic) with cousin Stellantis Group Gallic brand Peugeot's 408 (also subsequently available as an EV), but this Citroen was a more straightforward design that sat on a different, simpler, CMP platform and was eventually offered with a wide variety of powertrains. As you might expect, everything here is based on the e-C4 hatch, but from the B-pillar back, things are a great deal more spacious and interesting. This e-C4 X model was first launched in 2022, with a larger 54kWh battery option added to the e-C4 X line-up in 2023. The e-C4 X in all its forms sold until late 2024, when the line-up was significantly facelifted. It's the pre-facelift versions of the e-C4 X we look at here.

What You Getword count: 532

True to its name, the e-C4 X is what Citroen describes as a 'cross design' - an integration of a Fastback saloon body onto the raised hatchback-cum-crossover design of the e-C4 hatch. Everything at the front is the same as that hatch showroom stablemate. Where things change with this C4 X saloon body shape is from the B-pillar back, where a different roof line takes over and there's an extra 240mm of length. Like all C4 variants, this one features smart 18-inch diamond-cut 'Crosslight' alloy wheels. And the matte black-finished wheel arches surrounding them aren't for arduous tracks but to prevent supermarket car park dings. From here you can better appreciate the sleek aerodynamic shape of this saloon variant, rated at 0.29Cd. At the rear the sedan styling's smart, with a small duck tail-like spoiler and distinctive LED tail lights designed to look like arrows pointed towards the centre of the boot lid. Red reflectors are combined with reversing lights lower down. The front-of-cabin experience is exactly the same as in an ordinary e-C4 hatch, which means you get thickly padded 'Advanced Comfort' seats Through the oddly-shaped three-spoke wheel, you view a pared-back version of the quite innovative digital instrument panel used in the brand's MK1 C5 Aircross SUV, whose read-outs you flip through here by jabbing the left indicator stalk. The lower part of the centre console stretches broadly away in front of you into a deep smartly backlit area at the base of a centre stack topped by a large, glossy 10-inch infotainment touchscreen which includes virtually all the media features you could need. Avoid base trim and you're favoured with a rather unusual inclusion - the 'Citroen Smart Pad Support' package. This must have been expensive to engineer, giving you a novel slide-out tablet mount in front of the front passenger, plus a lower drawer (standard on all models) in which to keep your device. No other car on the market offers anything quite like this. And rear seat space? You might hope for an improvement there given the body length increase this C4 X enjoys over its hatch counterpart, but that ignores the fact that this saloon model's wheelbase length of 2,670mm is unchanged over the hatch. So things are much the same in the back, apart from the fact that headroom is slightly compromised by the sloping rear roof line. In compensation, Citroen claims best-in-class second-row knee room (198mm) and a more reclined (27-degree) rear seatback. Plus the exterior width of 1,800mm means that three people can comfortably sit side-by-side across the rear bench, with a total of 1,380mm of width at the shoulders and 1,440mm at the elbows. Let's finish by considering the boot. Which is the same size as the combustion model and turns out to be surprisingly large at 510-litres in size (much bigger than the 380-litres you get in the e-C4 hatch). There's a little room beneath the floor too - useful on this e-C4 X model for the storage of charging leads. If you need more room, then the rear seat backrest folds 60:40. You'll have to stretch right up to the very top of the range to get a ski hatch.

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