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Citroen e-C3 Aircross review: Still lovely, just bigger

October 22, 2025 George East

The Citroen e-C3 hatchback is a car we all like at EV Powered. Thankfully, the bigger e-Citroen Aircross compact crossover doesn’t take detract from any of the smaller car’s charm.

If you speak Citroen, then ‘Aircross’ means ‘slightly bigger and more SUV-like’. In the case of its quite lovely e-C3, the Aircross moniker means you get more room in the back and a larger boot. In fact, the higher-riding and longer e-C3 Aircross has 460 litres of boot space with the rear seats up, and 1,600 litres worth with them down.

For comparison, the e-C3 hatch gets 310 litres of boot real estate with the seats up, and 992 when folded.

Apart from the extra room, there isn’t much difference in between the regular e-C3 hatch and the e-C3 Aircross. Both come with the same 44kWh battery and the same sub-200 mile range as standard.

With the UK Government’s £1,500 Electric Car Grant applied, both are also among the most affordable EVs on the market today: the Aircross starts at £21,595 for the entry-level ‘Plus’ trim, while the hatch is priced from £20,595.

To all intents and purposes, the Citroen e-C3 Aircross and e-C3 hatchback are one and the same. They both represent tremendous value, a smooth ride, and everything you’d need from a small, B-segment car.

This review shows that the e-C3 Aircross keeps everything we love about the original, albeit in a slightly larger package with a bit of an elephant in the room regarding range.

Design, interior, technology

The Citroen e-C3 Aircross’ design barely deviates from the hatch, and the purposeful, blocky visuals carry over from the 2022 Citroen Oli concept car. In our book, that’s no bad thing.

The biggest difference between the two is that the Aircross rides slightly taller, and there’s more rear overhang thanks to the additional bootspace and 4.39-metre length. My first impressions were that of a Volvo EX40, albeit which wasn’t suffering from some sort of seasonal depression.

Thankfully, the e-C3 Aircross retains Citroen’s C-Zen cabin, which is found in the hatch. Designed to be as lounge-like as possible, it ushers in a daring blend of contours, lets in plenty of natural light, and retains physical buttons on the air-conditioning system for ease-of-use and familiarity.

The dashboard is quirkily French in that it’s laid out in a three-tier system – the middle layer reaching far into the dash, creating a visual unique not just for a car of this size, but in general.

Air vents at the furthest side of the dashboard stand vertically, and the driver’s display is enhoused firmly in front of the driver. While slim, the driver’s binnacle is almost retro in its execution, and is a nostalgic – and let’s face it, pretty cool – throwback to the digital read-out found inside the Xsara Picasso from days of yore.

Interestingly, Citroen has followed sister Stellantis brand, Peugeot, with the e-C3’s oblong-shaped steering wheel. It’s small, and you look over it rather than through it to view the speedo. It’s nicely trimmed, feels chunky, and the buttons for the stereo and cruise control operate with a firm, Tonka toy-esque push. No haptic nonsense here, thankfully.

The Citroen e-C3 Aircross is packed with safety tech, which can be turned off at the push of a physical button. Praise be. If, though, you do want to leave the driver assists on, they include lane-keeping assist, low-speed emergency braking, traction control, and speed limit recognition. Permanent traction control is also feature, as are six airbags, and two Isofix points in the rear.

While no Toyota in terms of material quality, the Citroen e-C3 Aircross doesn’t feel badly made or hugely flimsy. Granted, time could have played a part in this assessment, but it feels better screwed together than the hatchback.

While the cabin is pretty difficult to criticise for a car costing this much, I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of the piano black trim around the gear selector.

There’s nothing wrong with it per se, it’s just a bit of a smudge magnet and looks unimaginative up against the dashboard’s interesting blend of fabric and textured plastics. Note – this isn’t a specifically a Citroen problem, it can be said for any car whose cabin is trimmed in Satan’s dark material.

If you were wondering, the e-C3 Aircross’ gear selector is of course the Stellantis Comedy Special, which seems to be fitted to each EV that the automotive giant releases, irrespective of brand, spec, or price. In fact, it’s not dissimilar to the Toyota digital clock that would once upon a time be found on everything from the Corolla to the Lexus GS.

Given its modest performance, Citroen has resisted the urge to brand the e-C3 as anything remotely sporty. The brand has long-been synonymous with comfort, and it is keen to lean into this key characteristic of its heritage. The e-C3 Aircross gets Citroen’s patented ‘Advanced Comfort’ seats, which – thanks to high-density foam – are wonderfully soft and designed to support posture.

Finally, the seats are trimmed with little red tags reading with positive mantras such as ‘Be Cool’ and ‘Be Happy’. Some think they’re a bit cheesy, I like them as they’re a nice antidote to the oft-performance-focused car world.

Citroen e-C3 Aircross battery, motor, performance

Make no mistake, the Citroen e-C3 Aircross is as sporty as I am a size 32 waist. It just isn’t, Citroen makes no bones about it, and I cannot help but applaud the folks in Poissy for that.

The 44kWh battery produces 111bhp, and 93lb ft of torque. When it comes to performance, 84mph is the top speed and the 0-62mph run is dispatched in 10.4 seconds. While leisurely, it’s more than enough in urban driving, and the ultra-light steering (genuinely, you can steer it with one finger!) makes tackling town centres and country lanes a breeze.

Like the hatchback, Citroen fits the e-C3 with its Advanced Comfort Suspension. This patented piece of tech comes with hydrualic bump stops that help the suspension soak up potholes and waft over the poor surfaces so characteristic of Britain’s rubbish roads. Unsurprisingly, the Aircross rolls and leans into corners, but it’s far from unpleasant and fits within the car’s overall soft, roly-poly nature.

On the motorway, things are less positive as the e-C3 Aircross’ lack of power makes things a bit wheezy. The other elephant in the room to address is the range – it’s just 188 miles according to the WLTP cycle, coming in at 11 miles fewer than the hatch. In the real world, estimates suggest that the range of the e-C3 Aircross is actually around 150 miles.

Neither the e-C3 nor the e-C3 Aircross get an electricity consumption readout, so it’s largely guess work to figure out how fast both consumes kilowatts. Yet using the power of Big Maths, we figured that it’s anywhere from 3.8 to 4.3 miles/kWh.

The Citroen e-C3 Aircross’ 44kW battery has a fast charging speed of 100kW, allowing for a 20-80% top up in 26 minutes. Using a 7.4kW wallbox, charging will take five hours and five minutes. With an 11kW unit, that time is reduced to 3h25.

If the lowly range is offputting, there is also a 52kWh long-range version capable of 249 miles from a single charge. The extra miles will set you back £23,495 for the entry-level Plus trim, and £25,495 for the top-tier Max.

Price and specification

Our test car was finished top-tier ‘Max’ spec, which starts at £23,595, and was specced with the optional deep ‘Montana Green’ metallic paint costing £645. Paired with the white roof, it gives the e-C3 Aircross a premium, approachable look. Both Plus and Max trim cars ride on the same two-tone, 17-inch ‘Aragonite’ alloy wheels.

Across the board, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, plus a dash-mounted 10.25-inch infotainment screen comes as standard. However, the e-C3 Aircross Max benefits from wireless smartphone charging, integrated 3D navigation, and an auto-dimming rear view mirror.

The touchscreen is nothing to write home about – it looks and feels dated when up against more modern systems. The Citroen e-C3 Aircross is, though, a car that costs not much less than £22k, so the laggy system doesn’t particularly matter.

What I will say, though, is that the in-built nav saved the day. For reasons known solely to the miracle that is modern technlogy, my phone wouldn’t connect to the car’s Apple CarPlay. Not for the first time, did I have to rely on the home-grown Stellantis sat-nav to do the job. As I discovered with the Alfa Romeo Junior, the in-built system isn’t the prettiest to look at, but it does the job when your phone won’t work.

Irrespective of trim level, the Citroen e-C3 is generously equipped with both Plus and Max cars benefiting from LED headlights and daytime running lights, privacy glass for the rear windows, heated and electrically-folding side mirrors, air-conditioning, cruise control, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.

Citroen e-C3 Aircross verdict

There’s plenty to like about the Citroen e-C3 Aircross. It’s good looking, extremely comfortable, and most importantly in this economy, affordable. Moreover, its Gallic stubbornness to be even remotely sporty adds to what’s already a charming package.

The biggest issue is the slightly reduced range over the e-C3 hatchback, but that comes in favour of more cabin space. It’s genuinely difficult to choose between the two, so I would say that it doesn’t matter whether you plump for the e-C3 hatch or the e-C3 Aircross – either way, you’ll end up with an immensely likeable little car.