Citroën is confident its 11 electric vehicle specialist dealers in the UK will recoup their investment in the new market area within a year.

The dealers (two in London and others in Slough, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Manchester, Gatehead, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dungannon) have had to invest in specialist equipment, one demonstrator, a charging point, hard standing and signage. Citroën would not reveal the exact costs.

The electric vehicle specialist network will have 270 of Citroën’s C-Zero to sell between them in the first year of sales which will be directly targeted at fleet customers.

Citroën believes this corporate business and the halo effect of having the C-Zero will be enough for dealers to see a return on their investment.

Each C-Zero dealer has two sales and two aftersales specialists.

A Citroën spokesman said: “The dealers would benefit from the kudos of having a special car in their sales portfolio.”

Citroen said the network of 11 could be expanded “as and when required”.

The geographical locations for each of the dealers takes advantage of the Government’s ‘Plugged-in Places’ across the UK.

The C-Zero is being offered on a £415 per month (excl. VAT) over four years or 40,000 miles.

The deal factors in the Government’s £5,000 plug-in car grant and includes lease, battery, servicing and maintenance.