• Choice of petrol or mild-hybrid
• Manual gearbox and diesel now discontinued
• Automatic gearboxes let the side down

What engine options are there?

While the C4 was originally available with a choice of petrol and diesel engines, the latter has now been discontinued on new models, and in place is a new petrol mild-hybrid.

Petrol engines 

The sole petrol engine you can now buy is the PureTech 130 – a turbocharged 1.2-litre unit producing 130bhp. While a manual model used to be offered, you can now only have it with an eight-speed automatic transmission. Citroen claims a 0-62mph time of 9.4 seconds and, while we’ve long liked this engine, we’re yet to try it in the revised Citroen C4. 

Hybrid engines

Citroen introduced a pair of mild-hybrid petrol engines in late 2024, with the firm claiming a 20% improvement in fuel consumption. 

134

Both are based around a 1.2-litre petrol engine paired with a 48-volt mild-hybrid electrical system that works to reduce fuel consumption and boost performance. There’s the choice of versions with 100bhp or 134bhp, with the less powerful model taking 10.7 seconds to reach 62mph, while the latter can do it in 8.0 seconds. That makes it the quickest C4 available yet. 

What’s it like to drive? 

• Very comfortable ride
• Tidy handling, despite soft suspension
• But look elsewhere if you want sportiness

This is nice and easy because it’s clear that Citroen has honed this car for comfort rather than sporty handling. However, despite its soft suspension that benefits from the Citroen Advanced Comfort programme (which brings you Progressive Hydraulic Cushions for its suspension and Advance Comfort seats), it feels agile in corners and has tidy and accurate handling.

There’s a degree of bodyroll that you’d expect from a car that rides so softly, but it’s nowhere near as roly-poly as Citroens of old, and the overall body control is excellent, so it always feels planted and stable at speed. Whereas the C5 Aircross SUV can lurch and wallow in bends, the C4 rolls a little and tracks the corner smoothly – an excellent effort. It’s also very refined, feeling quiet on the move and even at motorway speeds, the only noise intrusion is coming from the door mirrors. 

134

We’re not sold on the mild-hybrid system, however, based on the 136hp application we’ve tried it with so far. Though it can run on electricity for a decent proportion of the time, in the real world it doesn’t seem all that much more frugal than the older non-hybrid PureTech 130 engine. It’s also not the most refined engine under harsh acceleration, and performance is hamstrung by its sometimes dim-witted six-speed automatic gearbox. Though it’s quite nippy, it doesn’t feel as fast as the 8.0-second 0-62mph time suggests.