Dodge Circuit EV electric car (2009) CAR review

The Dodge Circuit is the first of a new breed of alternative fuel Chrysler products to be tested by anyone outside the American firm. Admirably, electric propulsion means it’ll have zero emissions. Its claimed range is between 150 and 200 miles so it’s practical. And it should get sports car fans excited by accelerating from standstill to 60mph in less than five seconds. That this car is not a Dodge at all but actually a Lotus Europa shows just how our desire to drive without killing the planet has caught the American firm napping.

No shame in hijacking a Lotus. The Dodge Circuit EV should be pretty special to drive?

Indeed it is. Quick is the best word to sum the Circuit up. The electric engine has power equal to 268 internal combustion horses. There are no gears and as electric engines deliver maximum torque throughout the power band, you feel a sizeable shove whatever speed you’re doing below 100mph. But the most eery thing is the complete lack of engine noise. There’s a gentle whirring that’s a cross between a milk float and something science fiction and then as the engine moves into the second of its two phases a turbo-like whistle becomes the accompaniment.

How about the fabled Lotus handling?

Dodge has had neither the time and resources nor, sensibly, the inclination to tinker with anything other than the powertrain. Therefore the suspension is the fully independent Lotus set-up as the British firm intended. Our test track didn’t have an enormous variation of corners but several things became apparent. The silence of the electric engine amplifies the amount of wind and road noise you get in a Europa. The steering is as direct as you’d expect of a Lotus and despite the rearwards weight bias increasing by 5% to 67%, the Circuit is nimble and rewarding.

So how does the Dodge Circuit EV differ from a Lotus Europa?

Dodge has exchanged the front valance for its own grille and the rear end is different too, largely because there’s no exhaust pipe. Otherwise, externally, it’s identical. Internally it’s the same story with just three buttons in place of the gear lever hinting at quite how busy the American engineers have been underneath. The Europa’s petrol engine has been replaced with a 200kW electric unit over the rear axle and lithium-ion batteries between it and the seats. Obviously its range depends on how it’s driven, but Dodge engineers say it’ll take about seven hours to recharge from the mains.

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