You probably already know the problem. It’s the one that means you rarely see an E on the road. “I couldn’t live with the range…” said Saunders. “If only it had usable range,” said Verpraet. “All but unrecommendable,” said, er, me.
The E will take you up to 130 miles officially but usually less in practice. It takes an age to squeeze the last few percent of juice into the battery and it’s a brave soul who takes it down to near nothing, unless they know reliable home charge is waiting. So on a day out, let’s call it 100 miles. And that’s not nearly enough.
It’s such a pity, because the E, while not designed as a driver’s car per se and certainly not in the same territory as the Abarth 500e in being a hot hatch, is a pleasure to drive. It’s compact, its power goes to the rear wheels (not that it troubles them) and, by dint of not getting very far under its own steam, it’s relatively light in this company: at 1520kg, it’s second lightest, behind only the 500e.
That its front wheels don’t have to worry about power means that the steering is uncorrupted, slick and smooth. And with no front driveshafts, its turning circle is wee. That makes it the most fun in town, if not with the moves of the others on a B-road. “A city slicker through and through,” said Felix Page.
