Electric Citroen is go

This is the Citroen ev'ie, a four-seat battery-powered electric car that can be plugged straight into a household electricity socket for charge - and it's available now.

Launched today (Thursday 30th April) by the Electric Car Company (ECC), the Citroen is the first fully-electric production car with four seats to hit UK showrooms. Of course, the Tesla Roadster stole a march on the ev'ie, but that costs around £92,000 - a full £75,000 more expensive than the £16,850 ECC is asking for this.

The maker claims that utilising the Citroen C1 as the ev'ie's base gives it 'the comfort, performance and a full range of standard safety features expected from a petrol car.' And its vital statistics bode well too, because it takes seven hours to charge fully from a 13-amp socket - which the maker claims costs around 90p - and can drive 60-70-miles on one charge. Its top speed is a dual carriageway friendly 60mph.

It's also converted from its Citroen donor car in the UK, which ECC says will create jobs as it ramps up production from 500 cars over the next 12 months to 'between 2,000 and 4,000 units in 2010, dependent on demand and government support.' ECC boss David Martell said: "We believe this is the first serious alternative to a petrol or diesel car. It drives just like a petrol car and has excellent capacity for use in any town or city in the UK."

If you'd like to buy one, you need to see the Electric Car Company (not Citroen), at www.eecplc.com.

Mark Nichol