As well as being environmentally-friendly, electric vans can potentially turn just as many heads as a rip-snorting V6 petrol Ford Ranger Raptor pick-up.
That is something Volkswagen has demonstrated to great effect with its uniquely-styled ID. Buzz Cargo, and Vauxhall has clearly taken note. While not having the stand-out looks of VW’s offering, with a rear roof spoiler, a front lower spoiler, extended side-sill mouldings, and black 18in alloys, its Vivaro Electric L1 GS is guaranteed to attract plenty of attention in high streets across the UK.
Such cosmetic enhancements also help the battery-powered Vivaro stand out from the rest of the Stellantis pack. The global automotive behemoth owns Citroën, Peugeot and Fiat Professional as well as Vauxhall.
Economies of scale being what they are, Vivaro is also available as the Citroën Dispatch, Peugeot Expert, and Fiat Professional Scudo. The exterior styling, equipment levels and powertrains available may differ a little from one to another, but if you take away the badges, they are at heart all the same vehicle.
That vehicle is additionally sold by Toyota – and with a particularly attractive warranty – as the Proace thanks to a joint venture between Stellantis and the Japanese giant.
The Vivaro Electric is marketed in entry-level Prime and mid-range Pro trim as well as in GS guise, with two different overall lengths – L2 (5,309mm) and L1 (4,959mm) – and one roof height. Available too is an L1 platform cab.
Customers can specify either a 50kWh or a 75kWh battery pack. The former gives you roughly 200kg more payload capacity, but less range.
The GS is sold solely in L1/75kWh guise and is considerably more expensive than its stablemates. Taking care not to scrape its shimmering paint finish or dent those big alloys, we decided to put Vauxhall’s fancy offering with its three-seater cab through its paces.
Here’s how we fared.
Load bay
Twin rear doors plus a sliding door on both the nearside and offside provide access to the cargo area. The back doors can be swung through 90°, and through 180° if you release the user-friendly door stays, and the inside edge of the nearside door pillar features a 12V power point.
The full-height solid steel bulkhead accommodates a hatch close to the floor which provides a load-through facility under the FlexCargo banner. It means that extra-long items can be slid under the passenger seat rather than left to stick out through the rear doors.
Simply opening the hatch gives you an additional 432mm.
Going further and folding the outboard passenger seat upwards and backwards against the bulkhead as well lengthens the load floor by a generous 1,162mm, to 3,674mm. It allows you to push pipes and planks all the way into the passenger footwell.
Half-a-dozen floor-mounted cargo tie-down points are fitted in the load area, and the cargo bed is protected by a tailored wooden cover. Protective panels provide the doors and sides with some defence against scratches and scrapes but the (admittedly slim) wheel boxes look vulnerable, and the entire cargo area would benefit from being timbered out.
Good to see that the Vivaro Electric boasts a braked towing weight of up to 1,000kg – but remember that towing can rapidly reduce your range. The equivalent GS diesel can tow 2,500kg and its gross payload is more than 400kg higher.
Interior and equipment
Keyless opening and starting is fitted, which means you can unlock the doors and start the engine simply by having the key fob in your pocket. Also present are an electric parking brake, cruise control, front fog lights, driver and passenger airbags, electric windows, and electrically-adjusted and heated exterior mirrors that fold inwards automatically.
You use a switch on a moulding which curves outwards from the dashboard, and steals some of the middle passenger’s leg space, to select D for Drive, R for reverse or N for Neutral.
You can also opt for the B for Brake setting. Using it recoups energy which would otherwise be wasted when the van decelerates – when it is descending a steep hill for instance – and pumps it into the battery.
An adjacent switch allows you to select from three (self-explanatory) drive modes; Eco, Normal or Power.
A – by today’s standards, rather too small – 7in touchscreen sits in the centre of the fascia and controls many – though thankfully, not all – of the in-cab functions.
Conventional knobs are used to operate the heating, ventilation and climate control systems, turn the DAB radio on and off, and raise and lower its volume. The air-con is impressively effective, but of course sucks juice out of the battery.
Satellite navigation forms part of the package, as does voice control along with Bluetooth audio streaming and a Bluetooth mobile phone portal. The dashboard plays host to a USB port and a 12V power socket and you can gain access to a variety of connected services courtesy of Vauxhall Connect.
The digital instrument cluster in front of the driver shows useful data such as the remaining range and the level of charge in the battery. You can even make use of a compass.
Boasting lumbar adjustment and an armrest, the driver’s seat is height-adjustable. So is the leather-trimmed steering wheel, which accommodates remote controls for the radio plus phone controls.
The seats are trimmed in leather too, complete with fancy red stitching.
In-cab storage facilities include a roomy but not lockable glove box, a cubbyhole below it with a second 12V socket, a lidded compartment on top of the dashboard, a big bin and a small bin in both doors, and a shelf in the middle of the fascia. You will find top-mounted cupholders at each end of the dashboard.
Pull the centre seat’s cushion up, and you will discover a hidden compartment that you can use to conceal your smartphone and other valuable items you would rather not lose. Pull the centre section of the seat’s back down, and it becomes a handy little desk with an elasticated band to help keep your paperwork tidy; assuming you still use paperwork.
Front and rear parking sensors and a reversing camera offer an invaluable bird’s-eye view of nearby hazards, and are included in the deal. So is a comprehensive portfolio of on-board safety gizmos, including blind spot detection, forward collision alert with automatic emergency braking, hill start assist and driver drowsiness alert as well as ABS and electronic stability programme with traction control.
Lane departure warning forms part of the safety offer, too. We eventually switched it off, however, because it proved to be overly-eager, beeping annoyingly every time we strayed more than a millimetre over the white lines that mark the centre of at least some of Britain’s narrow and fast-crumbling rural roads.
Far less annoying – and a licence preserver – was an icon on the instrument panel which tells you what the speed limit is on the road you are travelling along; and reminds you not to break it.
Raindrops on the windscreen trigger the wipers and the lights come on automatically at dusk.
Our Vivaro’s alloys were shod with Nankang Passion CW-20 225/50 R18C tyres.
Nankang? No, we’d never heard of the company either, but it is based in Taiwan and been going since the late 1950s – and most importantly appears to produce decent-quality products.
Powertrain
Married to a single-speed automatic transmission, the Vivaro Electric’s motor produces a maximum 100kW (136hp), with 260Nm of torque on tap. It draws power from a 75kWh battery pack that employs a 7.4kW onboard charger; an 11kW charger is up for grabs as
an option.
Plug the van into a 100kW DC charger and it should take no more than 45 minutes to take the battery pack from 0% to 80% of its maximum charge, says Vauxhall. Use a 7kW AC charging point instead, the manufacturer adds, and it will take 11 hours 20 minutes to trudge from 0% to 100%.
Maximum range between recharges is said to be 205 miles, according to Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) combined figures, with the van consuming roughly 26.8kWh to 28.4kWh for every 60 miles or so it travels.
The Vivaro Electric comes with a Mode 3 charging cable and the socket it uses is under a flap on the vehicle’s nearside above the front wheel arch. A delayed charging function allows the user to enter a start time to allow the van to be charged overnight at off-peak rates.
Driving
No matter whether it is laden or empty, the Vivaro Electric rides as well as can be expected on the UK’s pot-hole-pitted excuses for roads.
The handling is impressively-sharp, too, with steering that responds rapidly to inputs from the driver and makes the van easy to position on the highway. Nor did we have any complaints about the vehicle’s low-speed manoeuvrability, and in-cab noise levels were not especially intrusive.
On-highway performance depends heavily on which drive mode you select.
Go for Eco and you will get a bit more range, but your ability to accelerate is pretty much strangled as the motor’s output is cut to 59kW/80hp. The power setting (100kW/136hp) delivers all the wallop you are likely to need, especially if you are overtaking slower-moving traffic, but drains the battery.
Net result? We left the Vivaro Electric in Normal (79kW/107hp) most of the time, which offers the best of both worlds; enough puff to allow you to keep up with other drivers, but without having to worry that your store of on-board energy is depleting too quickly.
While you are wondering which drive mode to use, don’t forget about deploying the transmission lever’s B setting whenever appropriate. It can potentially extend your range by several miles and does so smoothly.
Operating
Service intervals are set at 25,000 miles/two years, although the first service comes at 12,500 miles/one year. A three-year/100,000-mile warranty protects the vehicle, with the battery covered for eight years/100,000 miles.
The daytime running lights use LEDs, which last a remarkably long time, and the provision of a proper spare wheel – albeit at additional cost – is another reason to be cheerful. Two-coat metallic paint was the only other option on our demonstrator – and should really be included in its steep price – and side protection mouldings should help defend it against minor damage.
Vauxhall Vivaro Electric L1 GS
Price (ex VAT) £57,050 **
Price range (ex VAT) £40,355–57,050 **
Gross payload 1,000kg
Load length 2,512mm
Load width (min/max) 1,258mm/1,636mm
Load bay height 1,397mm
Load volume 5.3m3
Loading height 613mm
Rear door aperture 1,282mm xn1,220mm
Side door aperture 935mm x 1,241mm
Gross vehicle weight 3,025kg
Braked trailer towing weight 1,000kg
Residual value 24.2%*
Cost per mile 81.3p*
Engine size/power 100kW (136hp) electric motor
Torque 260Nm
Gearbox 1sp
Warranty 3yrs/100,000mls
Service intervals 2yrs/25,000mls
Insurance group 35E
Price as tested £57,800
* After 48 months/20,000mls
p.a – source – KWIKcarcost
** Basic price before VAT,
On The Road Costs, and government Plug-in Van Grant
Options
Two-coat metallic paint £650
Spare wheel £100
Rivals
Ford E-Transit Custom
Price range (ex VAT ) TBA**
Load volume 5.8-9.0m3
Gross payload 1,100kg
Electric motor 101kW (137hp), 162kW (220hp)
Verdict: Usually we would not highlight a van that was not available at the time of writing as a competitor to a vehicle that is already on sale. However in this case we believe it is justified given Ford Transit Custom’s soaraway success in the UK market. E-Transit Custom should hopefully be appearing in Ford dealerships about now, and with a claimed range of up to 236 miles it will bear close investigation.
Mercedes-Benz eVito
Price range (ex VAT) £48,260-£51,915**
Load volume 6.0-6.6m3
Gross payload 749-807kg
Electric motor 85kW (116hp)
Verdict: Safety and equipment standards are high, so is build quality, we’ve no quarrels with the ride or the handling, and the latest eVito offers considerably more range than its predecessor; but at 162 miles, it could stand to be better. Payload capacity could be better too, and you cannot use eVito for towing. Eccentric parking brake needs scrapping in favour of an electric parking brake.
Volkswagen ID. Buzz Cargo
Price range (ex VAT) £39,625-£43,875**
Load volume 3.9m3
Gross payload 650kg
Electric motor 152kW (207hp)
Verdict: ID. Buzz Cargo is smaller than Vivaro Electric, but certainly worth considering if you’re after a van that will turn heads in your local high street. Claimed range is a creditable 258 miles, and VW’s newcomer scores highly when it comes to performance, refinement and equipment. On the downside payload capacity is unimpressive, although towing is permitted.
The Final Verdict
Design 8/10 – A stylish but practical package. The stress on safety can only be applauded
Cabin 7/10 – A comfortable working environment but needs a bigger touchscreen
Ride 8/10 – Copes well with the UK’s dilapidated highways, no matter if it is laden or unladen
Refinement 8/10 – In-cab noise isn’t an issue, and it is without doubt a well-put-together vehicle
Load area 8/10 – Easy to access, but needs better protection against minor damage
Handling/performance 7/10 – Performance is impressive in Normal or Power mode – but Eco slows you down
Engine/transmission 8/10 – Well-matched and user-friendly, able to pump energy that would otherwise be lost
Standard equipment 8/10 – Plenty of goodies including SatNav and a reversing camera with a bird’s-eye view
Operating costs 8/10 – Decent warranty package and sensible service intervals help keep costs down
What Van? subjective rating 7/10 – An attractive zero-emission van for local work, but painfully expensive
Overall Rating = 77/100
