Citroen eC3 1000 km Review: A Few Hiccups Here & There

While the ride quality and city driving is impressive, the eC3 has made me scratch my head a lot due to some weird reasons

It's been over a month since I’ve had the Citroen eC3 and it has been my daily driver for that period. Occasionally, the car has switched hands, but till now it has only been driven in the city. This cas has done everything you can do in the city including regular office commutes, midnight drives, airport runs, and occasional long drives with friends. 

In all those drives, one thing remained constant: the ride comfort. Citroen prides itself on its suspension setup which claims to provide a plush ride quality, and this is true in case of the eC3. Me and my colleagues have been driving this car in Pune, which is known for its best-in-the-world road infrastructure (wink), and the eC3 has managed to keep everyone comfortable on all surfaces.

Even when there have been 3 or more passengers in the car, the ride comfort did not take a hit, and I very quickly realised that this car is very good for the city. It's small enough to easily navigate city traffic, big enough to provide space for four passengers, has a usable 180 km of range, and keeps everyone comfortable.

But, in my experience, I encountered a few issues, which I did not foresee or expect in a Rs 13 lakh car. To charge the eC3 in our CarDekho office, I have to park it in the basement and that too on a slope. This is done for every EV we get. But, for some reason, when the eC3 was parked on the slope, the boot refused to open. 

So if I needed to put the charger back, I had to bring it outside on level road, and then open the boot. This is not a repetitive issue, but it did leave us confused. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened in the last two weeks. Similarly, the charger gets stuck inside the port and there is no specific button to release it. It is supposed to release automatically once you stop charging, but that does not happen every time.

5 times out of 10 I’ve had to open the bonnet, find the emergency release, and pull it to take the charger out. This has happened at home as well as at fast charging stations. The car also stops charging randomly when it overheats, and this is expected during fast DC charging. But in my experience, it has also happened twice during slow AC charging.

The cabin also has some issues. The unit we received came with broken rear charging ports. And I don’t mean that they don’t work. They just came broken off and are lying deep inside the casing. We spoke to Citroen about it, and they said it can be fixed but the car will take at least a week to be returned. 

Another issue is in the IRVM which came off when I flicked it to avoid someone’s high beam, and I realised that it is also damaged and will be fixed once I send the car back sometime soon. But, this car has done just around 7000 km, and these quality issues were not expected. It's not something that we would expect at the ₹ 13 lakh price point.

Till now, the only thing that has impressed me and others who’ve driven it, is the ride quality and it's easy to drive nature. In the next few weeks, I’ll take the eC3 to Mumbai to see if it can do small intercity commutes, and focus more on the features and practicality of this car. So, stay tuned for more updates.

Positives: Comfortable ride quality, easy city commutes, usable city range

Negatives: Less features, sub par cabin quality, charging issues

Date When Received: May 9, 2025

Kilometres When Received: 7271 km

Kilometres Till Now: 8294 km