Greetings to all fans of this car!
In 2016 we decided to buy a Citroen C Zero, which is essentially a rebadged Mitsubishi i-MiEV with a slightly smaller battery. The reason for the purchase was simple: my wife's Mini wasn't quite suitable for transporting her elderly mother. The idea of an electric car was suggested by our son, something I hadn't even considered before, as electric vehicles seemed too expensive and out of reach for me. C-Zero wasn't available through the official dealer in Slovenia at the time, so we had to buy it from an Austrian dealer. With the subsidy taken into account, we paid around €13,000 for it, including insurance and taxes.
From the very beginning, we've all been thrilled with it and we use it frequently whenever it's available, even though each of us in the family has our own ICE car. Of course, its range is limited, but most of our daily errands fit comfortably within that range. Until recently, driving was very cheap, even now it's still considerably cheaper. In Slovenia, there's also no road tax for electric vehicles. Its 3.5 kW charger doesn't strain the grid too much, since there's been talk of additional charges recently. So, its use is still very economical. Additionally, the car is quite nimble and performs well in city traffic. Its small size is very useful for my wife, making it easier to find parking near her workplace. My wife never drove our BMW5, since she has become completely accustomed to her Zero.
The car has now about 90.000km on odometer. We haven't had any serious issues with it. Once a year, we take it for a check-up, where they usually replace the air conditioning filter. The car has experienced some minor bumps and pushes into its bumper because its motor has a lot of torque, easily pushing obstacles on the bumper without the driver immediately realizing it. However, the range gradually decreases over time due to battery aging. Recently, I tried using OBDZero to measure the battery capacity (Cap1, Cap2), but I'm not entirely convinced by the results, as I wasn't able to keep the BT session between the OBD and the phone for all the time of the session. Also, it's not entirely clear to me which result is important for assessing the health, as two options are available. As I recall, one was 82 and other 84%. I guess after eight years, when the warranty expires, the battery will still have just enough capacity to meet the warranty conditions. However, I fear that over the next eight years, the range will decrease to the point where the car gradually becomes less useful, unfortunately, a fate that applies to most electric vehicles.
Nevertheless, I hope we'll continue to enjoy driving this car for a long time, just as we have until now.