Something rather clever is brewing at Citroën, and for once it doesn’t smell of petrol. The French, who have always known how to make a car feel like a particularly comfortable armchair, are rolling out the ëlo in January at the Brussels Motor Show. This isn’t some dusty design exercise destined to gather cobwebs in a museum; it’s a rolling love letter to city life, a tiny, brainy, 100 % electric runabout that promises to make the daily grind a bit more bearable without requiring a second mortgage.
Have a proper look at it. Barely three metres long, all soft curves and friendly faces, with a full-width LED grin up front and – wait for it – square wheels, because why the hell not on a concept car? The ëlo looks like a mischievous gremlin that wandered onto the stand, and that’s precisely why it works. In a sea of sharp-edged, steroid-pumped SUVs, here’s something that makes you smile before you’ve even sat in it.
The real magic, though, is how ridiculously smart it is. The boot flips open into a two-seat bench – perfect for a quick coffee overlooking the canal or an impromptu picnic in the park. The sliding doors open with a wave of your phone, no fishing for keys while juggling shopping bags. The dashboard reads your mood, routes you to the nearest free charger, and generally behaves less like a car and more like a mate who’s already thought of everything. It’s the sort of cleverness that feels obvious once someone’s done it.
Numbers? Citroën is still playing coy, but the whispers suggest a proper urban electric with around 200 real-world kilometres of range, a light battery pack, that legendary Citroën pillow-soft suspension, and a kerb weight low enough to dart through traffic like a polite shopping trolley. It’s not trying to set the Nürburgring on fire, and it doesn’t need to. This is for people who value sanity over horsepower.
At Brussels, while everyone else is flogging yet another bloated plug-in hybrid the size of a small flat, Citroën will park this little ray of sunshine in the spotlight. The ëlo is going to turn heads, spark conversations, and probably convince a fair few sceptics that going electric doesn’t have to feel like a penance. It might actually be rather good fun.
Until it hits the road (and trust me, the wait feels long already), it’s a timely reminder of why electric is the only sensible future: silence, effortless torque, no more petrol-station roulette, and the quiet satisfaction of not being part of the problem.
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