Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £8,095 to £8,095
Low running costs; no (direct) emissions; safety equipment; drives like a real car.
Emissions from electricity generation; requires access to charge points; limited range.
One of the first cars to make electricity a genuine alternative to the internal combustion engine.
The C1 Evie has exactly the same steering and suspension set-up as the standard C1, so there are no surprises in the ride and handling departments.
The ride is decent, feeling fairly compliant and soaking up most potholes and broken surfaces without too much discomfort. It handles well too, with some of the roll that the C1 experiences gone, but then a 60mph top end means it doesn't have the poke of the petrol-powered C1.
It does feel slightly heavier in the nose, thanks to the electric motor and batteries (they add around 120-160kg to the car's kerbweight, depending on the trim level and how many doors you choose for your C1), but overall it's pretty similar to the conventionally powered model.
The performance of the electric powertrain is impressive. A 30kW (58bhp) motor powers the car, drawing its energy from 25 lithium ion batteries, 16 of which are situated in under the bonnet, with the other nine placed where the fuel tank used to be.
There are no official torque figures as yet, but 100% of it is available from 0mph, so the Evie pulls away from a standing start smoothly and strongly. There's two gears, forward and reverse. Simple.
The C1 Evie is very easy to drive and eerily silent, with only the sound of the vacuum pump on the brake servo accompanying you. You get up to a speed of 30-40mph fairly quickly (and noiselessly) and if on a stretch of open road, you can eventually hit 60mph.
The one big drawback of electric powertrains at the moment is range. No doubt in 10 years' time we'll look back and laugh at the measly 60-mile range of the Evie, but for now it is an issue. The car's regenerative braking, especially in use around town helps, adding up to an extra 15-20 miles, but that still means you can only squeeze 80 miles out of it before recharging.
A full charge takes six to seven hours, so if you have a garage, it's straightforward to just plug it in to a standard 13 amp domestic socket and charge it overnight.
But one environmental website, treehugger.com, recently calculated that electric cars powered by the national grid in the US emit the equivalent of 160g/km. Something to think about if before you get too smug.
