My needs from a car are fairly conventional. It needs to be easy enough to negotiate busy city streets during my 18-mile round trip commute into the office, but powerful and efficient enough to take on a few motorway journeys to catch up with friends and family each month. On top of that, it must be capable of carrying passengers and their luggage from time to time.
Fortunately, requirements like that are bread and butter for the latest batch of small electric SUVs, but here’s the rub: I don’t have a home EV charger, nor do I have the ability to install one. That means I’ll need to use the rich and varied array of public chargers.
That’s all to come though, so let’s get back to the car. To help stand out in a crowded slice of the market, the e Vitara’s starting price of £26,249 is competitive. That includes a £3750 manufacturer’s discount, which mimics the top band of the Government’s electric car grant; something that the Renault 4 qualifies for but the e Vitara does not.
There’s a healthy number of versions to choose from, including two trim levels, a pair of battery sizes and – something practically none of its rivals offer – the option of four-wheel drive. Called the Allgrip-e, this version of the e Vitara features a number of different driving modes to boost its capabilities on slippery surfaces.
I don’t plan on climbing any mountains or fording any streams, though, so I decided to stick with the standard front-wheel drive version and choose range-topping Ultra trim. That version comes with the larger 59.8kWh (usable capacity) battery as standard for a respectable official range of 264 miles, and its single electric motor produces a healthy 172bhp.
