10,000 km with my Citroen eC3: How it continues to impress me

My range has been a consistent 200 to 220 km to a full charge with 90 percent highway and 10 percent city use.

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My Citroen eC3 had its first free (labour) service in the 2nd week of May. This is a time to reflect at my 7-months of ownership and clocking more than 10,000 km. What is glaring is that this is the fastest 10,000 km that I have clocked on any car that I have owned. Low running costs (about 1.5 Rs/km on slow charge and 2.4 Rs/km on fast charge) and an overall running cost of 2.04Rs/ km has encouraged me to drive more and visit more places on my eC3. Another obvious fact is that the maintainence cost is very low, a mere Rs 540 for change of the AC Pollen filter and wiper wash fluid dusting my first service. That is the lowest I have paid for any service till date across the 4 cars I have owned in the past.

The myths about liquid cooling and fast charging have also been busted. I have fast charged the car about 50 times and across seasons. There were only 2 times when the car failed to charge due to charger connectivity issues which IMO is a good reliability of the car and of the Fast charge (FC) options available today.

The only real factor that alters the charging speed (during FC) was the battery’s SOC (state of charge). The higher the SOC, slower the speed to adjust for the warming of the battery and for distributing the charge across the cells in the final phase of charging. The car can charge at maximum speed of 28KW/h and slows down to 3.3KW/h as it nears 100. Hence unless there is an absolute need, you’d be wasting significant time if you plan to charge the car beyond 90 % (SOC) during FC. The other reality is that all cars in the same segment charge at about the same rate and the supposed advantages of liquid cooled batteries (as observed by me while co-charging my car with other branded cars) is only marginal.

State of health (SOH) has remained at 100% even after 10,000km. Although it does not mean much in terms of longevity it certainly gives some confidence that the battery has not shown any signs of early degradation after 50 FC charge cycles and 35 to 40 Slow charge (SC) cycles. There is something in the design and engineering that seems to be working in favour of the car.

Software glitches have almost completely disappeared after the first software update at 2000km. The infotainment update has made the device more stable with fewer episodes of loss of connectivity with the phone while using wireless Apple Carplay and I’m grateful for that. Left passenger door creaks albeit very minor is persistent and Citroen is running a campaign to correct it.

My driving style has certainly changed. I do not use a heavy foot while accelerating and use regenerative braking a lot. The ECO mode (higher dampening and regenerative braking) I only use now during city drives. I leave it off during my everyday highway commute of nearly 25 km. This gives adequate power at cruising speeds for overtakes and faster acceleration which is important for highway driving. Also, I’ve noticed that the low friction state (without aggressive regen) improves power-on-demand and gives a better mileage during highway driving.

My mileage has been a consistent 200 to 220 km to a full charge with 90 percent highway and 10 percent city use. Average power usage (Watts/km) and the underestimation of it on the “My Citroen” app is disheartening. So is all the bull about the car giving 320 km range (ARAI). This is something that all car manufacturers overestimate and use as a selling point. The car gives about 5.8 - 7 km/ KW of charge. For a 29.2 KW battery that is about 2km for every percent of charge and the average power usage at my lowest when calculated for my cycle of driving is about 140 W/km and certainly not 100 to 108 W/km that shows up as my average consumption on the App. I’m not sure driving slower or more sedate than how I drive on the highway today is recommended and on the other hand may be dangerous or intrusive to other drivers / vehicles on the road.

I have learnt to disconnect the accessory (small) battery while leaving the car idle for more than 2 days. This battery goes to a low voltage state when not in use for a prolonged time and the AC blower does not work till the battery achieves the required stage of charge or voltage.

Accessories I’ve installed include: a reverse camera (factory fitted), DASH cam, a cabin air purifier, magnetic window shades, blind spot convex mirrors and a motion-controlled LED light for the boot. What improvements would I like in this car? Rear defogger and wiper and powered ORVMs (which is now offered on the SHINE variant). A better MID and brake light warning during regenerative braking would certainly be welcome.

After 11,000km I’ve truly come to appreciate the quiet roomy cabin, the fantastic AC (working its charm even during the peak summer in South India), the phenomenal suspension, limited body roll and its no fuss drivability.

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