[Sumedik]

Originally Posted by sunikkat

57 BHP and top speed of 107 is enough to strike it off from my list.

It is good that they have given LFP battery. However the top could have been 110km/h with more HP.

[rkv_2401]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

Air cooled batteries are present in the Nissan Leaf as well. That car is sold in many locations with a similar climate as the harsh Indian summer.

The Nissan Leaf is also sold in many locations with a climate much cooler than even Indian winters, and yet has some of the worst battery degradation rates seen amongst popular EVs.. I don't want to know in what condition these batteries will be in after 3-4 years of puttering around in city traffic in the sweltering heat.

[oli.ferns]

The pre-booking is at 25k link along with the option to choose and virtually view all of the customizations available.Unfortunately the pricing of each customization is not mentioned so it may not be possible to guage how expensive it may turn out to be after adding all the customizations. This is another point to consider when comparing the pricing with the tiago ev. Even if the ec3 is priced lower than the tiago ev, the price of customizations may take it higher.

[shyampsunder]

Originally Posted by rkv_2401

The Nissan Leaf is also sold in many locations with a climate much cooler than even Indian winters, and yet has some of the worst battery degradation rates seen amongst popular EVs.. I don't want to know in what condition these batteries will be in after 3-4 years of puttering around in city traffic in the sweltering heat.

Cold affects batteries much more than warmer temperatures. Plus the battery chemistries have evolved dramatically from then.

In spite of these points, I have been telling all my near and dear ones looking at EVs to avoid Citroen.

[TeaPot1]

With ~200KM range, the car appears to best suit short distance office commuters and some to & fro shopping needs. Strictly for city purpose.

The distance might be a problem for small business owners. Two trips from Electronic city to Peenya (or) from Anna Nagar to Mahindra City would easily drain the battery. Moreover, missing of key features will make enthusiasts to prefer other options as well (no start/stop button a classic example).

Hope Citroen price it very aggressively - say below Tiago - to garner good numbers on board.

[sagsaw]

Originally Posted by Kuldeep31

Somehow I get the feeling that this is a hurried launch from the French.
Regards

According to Citroen its under development parallel to the ICE version so safe to assume 5 yrs development n testing time.

Originally Posted by rkv_2401

The Nissan Leaf is also sold in many locations with a climate much cooler than even Indian winters, and yet has some of the worst battery degradation rates seen amongst popular EVs.

AFAIK, Nissan Leaf power is not capped and it does not have a ICE like gradual linear power delivery programmed.

So the demands on the battery in Leaf and in Citroen eC3 will be poles apart.

Rest, it remains to be seen in long test drives in real conditions.

[JithinR]

The only good I see from Citroen releasing this is perhaps TATA will take this opportunity to price their base variants of Punch EV aggressively and actually deliver it to end customers to kill their competitors product.

What happened to French ideals like liberte? Let your customers choose if they want the stripped down version or the feature packed version of your car. This approach will only lead to these guys leaving our market in a few years talking about unreasonable demands/expectations from Indian consumers.

[AdhikR]

I was initially very skeptical, but this vehicle might just work decently for Citroen.

They need to get two things right here:

1) The battery - being air-cooled - must not pose safety hazard, especially in the summer.
2) The pricing needs to be aggressive (and going by evident cost cutting inside, I think it will be)

[sagsaw]

Originally Posted by JithinR

The only good I see from Citroen releasing this is perhaps TATA will take this opportunity to price their base variants of Punch EV aggressively and actually deliver it to end customers to kill their competitors product.

With the kind of popularity n demand for PUNCH ICE, I don't think Tata would want to be too aggressive for PUNCH EV n let go of margins.

Punch will start between Tiago and Tigor and end up just below Nexon is what I feel.

eC3 will still find a place in the EV world at least till Renault Nissan Maruti release their products especially in the sub 10L price point.

Its then when Citroen will start to feel the heat.

[antz.bin]

Far too many compromises.

Buying an EV means there is inherently a compromise in terms of practicality and flexibility.

All the other cars in EV segment have made sure that there are no more of those compromises that don't need to exist.

The biggest reason why cheap commuter petrol cars are low powered is to preserve fuel economy and running cost per km. An EV does not need to have that compromise due to its much superior efficiency. If I have to endure low acceleration, I will buy a Renault Kwid 1.0 AMT and get all of the stuff I am getting in the eC3 with much less flexibility compromise and also save about 5lakh to fill fuel. The eC3 battery is anyways going to degrade like anyone's business (similar to what is happening to the 1st gen Nissan Leafs around the world) and the resale will not be any better than that of a Renault Kwid after 60-70k km.

Speaking practically, you don't need 300 liters of boot space to go shopping to the mall in the city.
You don't need 300 liters of boot space to go to the railway station/ airport because when you do need to go there, you invariably take a cab if you value your time.
What you do need the additional storage for is for a family road trip (during the summer holidays?).

Picture this:
You go out for that much awaited road trip, and take that lunch stop after driving 150km non stop. But Whoa! The car refuses to fast charge because the battery temperature is too high due to all the high power highway running and it has no other way to keep the battery temperature below the 55 degree threshold. Your 1 hour charging stop turned into a 3 hour nightmare with elders grumbling and kids screaming and in the meantime, the family in the Tiago EV completed their fast charge and is 2 hours closer to the destination.

That is not a situation I would ever want to put my family in. I am spending all this money and not saving any time. That's the worst kind of deal you could get.

[Tutenkhamen]

107??
It’ll be a lane hogger if it starts on any of the expressways.
Heck, PRTC, HRTC buses will try to overtake it and would smoothly succeed at that. What a good looking dud.

Eyes on to Jeep Avenger!

[Asoon]

This will not be a primary commuter of the family / owner, at best the second/third car of the family for household errands / in city driving.

This makes the available market for eC3 very limited.

Also there is no fun EV element (power, top speed) and no utility element (feature loaded / range/ space), this will just be a show off vehicle for the ones already having 2/3/4 cars

[aim120]

Originally Posted by antz.bin

The eC3 battery is anyways going to degrade like anyone's business (similar to what is happening to the 1st gen Nissan Leafs around the world) and the resale will not be any better than that of a Renault Kwid after 60-70k km.

Those 1st gen 2010 Leaf batteries from scrapped cars are still being used in EV conversions and solar. So no issues with the battery. Its only in cold countries that Lithium battery suffer, a 2023 Model 3 needs around 5kw of energy to precondition the battery, i.e just to keep the battery hot enough to accept a charge or even regen. We have no such issues unless you are in the snowy regions of India.

Originally Posted by antz.bin

Speaking practically, you don't need 300 liters of boot space to go shopping to the mall in the city.
You don't need 300 liters of boot space to go to the railway station/ airport because when you do need to go there, you invariably take a cab if you value your time.

With a EV you are more likely to take it to the airport. EV owners do more kms, trying to recoup the initial higher cost.

Originally Posted by antz.bin

Picture this:
You go out for that much awaited road trip, and take that lunch stop after driving 150km non stop. But Whoa! The car refuses to fast charge because the battery temperature is too high due to all the high power highway running and it has no other way to keep the battery temperature below the 55 degree threshold.

When you are doing highway speeds, your ICE car engine radiator fans shut down, since the sheer air flow coming at such speeds means, fan are useless. From team bhp review picture, we can see that the car battery has nice gap for air to pass through.
Mahindra E2O also had a air cooled battery, infact the battery was not even exposed to any sort of air stream be it outside air nor inside air, the gap between each cell was non existent.

eC3 accepts a DC charge speed almost as fast as a comparable battery size Nexon prime EV and it DC charges at higher kw rate then a Tiago or Tigor EV high range version.

eC3 only has a slow AC charging speed, probably to cut the cost down, a 3kw charger is Rs 60k cheaper then a 7kw charger option in Tata.

Also a 7kw Ac charger means, one has to pay more then Rs 800 every single month, even if you work from home and not use the car. Since the sanction load fixed charges increase. This further neutralizes any savings in EV vs ICE.

[niranjanprabhu]

We have seen repeatedly that Indian buyers aren’t looking for “cheap” cars but “value-for-money” cars
Chevrolet’s Sail and Toyota’s Liva failed exactly for this reason despite very good engines
Kia’s models are super successes exactly for doing the opposite
Not giving electrically adjustable ORVMs is the heights. Reminds me of the cars in the late 90s and early 2000s. Couple that with an EV that generates a laughable 57 PS
Very disheartening attitude from Citroen. Being endowed with such a tough platform and the accompanying great ride quality, and great turbo charged petrol engines, cringing on essentials and making a fool of oneself was least expected from such a great brand
As someone earlier said in this thread, they will soon pack up from India and blame lack of demand or whatever to cover up their abject failure in reading this market

[Blackwing]

An excerpt from Arenaev.com's coverage of eC3 launch

"On the safety side Citroen is bringing just two airbags to the eC3. Rest of the safety and protection is in the hands of the driver and local wildlife. As we know, India is quite an interesting place to drive and demands a lot of attention from the driver, hence the lack of even the simplest radio in the entry Live trim can be considered a safety feature."

https://www.arenaev.com/allelectric_...-news-1319.php