Fiat Grande Panda vs Citroen e-C3: these budget EVs are basically the same, but which is best?

Small, cheap and stylish electric cars are getting more common these days. Cars like the Citroen e-C3 and Fiat Grande Panda offer impressive interior space, comfort and tech for around £20,000, but despite their different bodies they’re actually very similar under the skin.

They’re both built by Stellantis, the company which also owns Peugeot and Vauxhall, and they use the same 113hp electric motor and 44kWh battery. Look hard enough and you’ll even see some shared switchgear inside, as well as the exterior door handles and mirrors.

Choosing between the two cars is difficult, but I’m going to make it easier for you. I’ve tested both of them for my in-depth reviews, and here I’m going to compare them.

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Fiat Grande Panda Electric vs Citroen e-C3: prices and deals

The Fiat Grande Panda is the more expensive car here on paper. It starts from £20,995, and you can save an average of £1,750 on one at the time of writing depending on trim level. The starting price with discounts is around £18,900.

As for the Citroen, it costs £19,995 and you can save an average of £3,600 through Carwow depending on which model you go for. After discounts, the e-C3 can be yours for around £16,800. However, cash prices aren’t everything. Let’s take a look at the leasing costs.

Over three years and 30,000 miles, the best deal I found on the Citroen e-C3 at the time of writing was £154 per month with £2,150 up front. That works out to around £7,500 in total.

The Fiat isn’t as competitive right now. It’ll cost you £241 per month over the same term, with £2,892 up front. The grand total is £11,300, so the Citroen is much cheaper whichever way you slice it.

So what are you getting for your money? Well both cars come with a 10.3-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a digital driver’s display, manual air conditioning and rear parking sensors, but the Citroen also gets alloy wheels as standard whereas the Fiat gets white steel rims.

Those look quite cool, in a retro way, but if they aren’t to your taste then you’ll have to pay another £1,000 for the mid-spec car. You just can’t get away from the fact the Citroen e-C3 is better value for money.

Fiat Grande Panda Electric vs Citroen e-C3: interior and practicality

Inside, the Fiat Grande Panda Electric is a mixed bag. I reckon it looks way cooler than the Citroen in here, with the blue trim and translucent yellow bits really livening things up. You also get a bamboo storage box on the dashboard in top-spec models – a really nice touch.

However, once you start touching bits of the cabin you’ll notice that it feels really cheap, and even nasty in some places. Those blue door cards scratch really easily, and the centre console feels flimsy.

I can sort of forgive scratchy plastics in a car as cheap as this, but a Renault 5 costs about the same and feels much posher – as does the Citroen e-C3. It may still have hard plastic on the doors, but it feels more solid and the fabric trim on the dash gives it a more premium feel.

In terms of practicality, there’s not much to separate these cars. They’re both small hatchbacks, so don’t expect limo levels of rear legroom, but we’ve been living with a Citroen e-C3 for six months and there’s plenty of space for a bulky child seat in the back. The door opening is a bit awkward though, making it tricky to slot into the rear seats.

It’s the same story in the Fiat, which is no surprise seeing as the two cars are basically the same size and shape. However, the Grande Panda’s boot is quite a bit bigger than the Citroen’s. At 361 litres, it’s 57 litres up on the e-C3.

Despite the quality concerns, I’m going to give the interior win to the Fiat Grande Panda. It looks cooler inside, and the larger boot makes it more practical.

Fiat Grande Panda vs Citroen e-C3: range and driving

We can keep this part brief, because these cars are mechanically almost identical.

The basic Citroen e-C3 has a 30kWh battery with a pretty dismal 130 miles of range. This is only really suitable for urban driving, so if you want to go further afield then you’ll want to pay an extra £2,000 for the 44kWh battery with 199 miles of range.

The Grande Panda isn’t available with the smaller battery – all models will do 199 miles on a charge. This is still way behind the Renault 5’s 252 miles of range though.

And in my experience, you’re likely to get closer to 150 miles in the real world if you’re lucky. If you regularly want to tackle long motorway journeys, I’d recommend avoiding these electric cars and going for the petrol hybrid versions instead.

But for local trips, both cars are really comfy and easy to drive. You sit up nice and high, visibility is good and the suspension soaks up the bumps nicely. In terms of range and driving, it’s a dead heat.

Fiat Grande Panda vs Citroen e-C3: Mat’s final verdict

So where does this leave us? Well the Citroen e-C3 is cheaper than the Fiat by quite some margin, and it’s just as nice to drive. The boot may be smaller, but the interior feels more high-quality and you get slightly more standard equipment as well.

However, the Fiat Grande Panda just looks plain cool. The interior has loads of personality, as does the exterior with its angular lines and the Panda branding stamped into the bodywork. It has more of a “want it” factor.

That’s still not quite enough to earn it a win here though. The Citroen still looks cool, and it’s better value for money, so it wins this test.

With all this being said, if I was in the market for a small, affordable EV I wouldn’t buy either of these cars. The Renault 5 looks even better in my eyes, it has a nicer interior, more modern tech, it’s better to drive and has more range. It may be a couple of grand more expensive than the Citroen, but with Carwow savings you can get one for the same price.

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