Category: City Cars 
Price Range: No data available
Zero-emission motoring, free parking in most of London, road tax and congestion charge exempt.
Anaemic performance, poor-quality fit and finish, instability at speed, limited range.
If you can live with the poorly built interior and the snail's-pace performance, then the G-Wiz is a very green alternative to a normal car. However, a pushbike and an Oyster card would be our recommendation.
A tight turning circle. That's all there is that's positive to say about driving the G-Wiz. Oh, and it's pretty easy to park. If you spend your day performing three-point turns and parking in meter bays, then the G-Wiz is ideally suited to the job.
However, away from parking, the G-Wiz struggles - badly. Driving over a speed bump feels like an attempt to climb Everest. Potholes and cat's eyes send judders through the car's body and your own. The seats offer nothing in the way of lateral support, making you slip across the vinyl-covered squabs any time you turn the wheel quickly. And, because of the G-Wiz's size deficit next to everything else on the road (even a Smart Fortwo is wider) you feel very vulnerable.
The G-Wiz is fully automatic, with two modes: Normal, for most urban driving, and Power, which gives a mild boost in performance and is essential for getting up bigger hills.
From a full charge, the G-Wiz is capable of clocking up 48miles (AC version) before the batteries run flat. It then needs a six-hour charge to get back to full capacity, although a three-hour charge should be good enough for around 30 miles, as the G-Wiz begins the charging process quickly, dropping to a trickle charge later in the cycle. Forward planning is very much the order of the day with the G-Wiz, because if you run out of charge you're stranded until you find a handy three-pin socket to plug into.
The G-Wiz has a 0-60mph time of 2.834seconds. Unfortunately, that's when it's driven off the edge of a cliff. In real-world performance, maximum speed is a claimed 45mph for the AC version, 40mph for the DC version. Acceleration times aren't quoted, which just about says it all really.
Because electric motors deliver their full power as soon as they're engaged, rather than building up to peak output as revs increase like a conventional engine, the G-Wiz is reasonably quick off the line. However, once that's accomplished, it can be a struggle even to keep up with town traffic.
At terminal velocity, the G-Wiz feels very twitchy and unstable, but it's much more composed at a pedestrian pace. Because of the limited speed and range, the G-Wiz is very much a town car. Driving on dual carriageways, although entirely possible, is not recommended.
