Citroen e-Berlingo review

The e-Berlingo range is fairly compact – there are two trims, Feel and Flair XTR, and both are available in either the M or XL sizes. Feel M start at £31,495 and going for the larger option adds £1k. Another £1k on top of that takes you to £33,495 for the Flair XTR M, with the same again on top for the seven-seater. All very simple, no? 

If you’re looking at monthly leasing then it’s a similarly compact spread. You can expect to pay around £650 a month for the Feel M, up to £675 a month for the Flair XTR XL. 

What are the options like? 

The basic spec isn’t too bad – you get smartphone integration and DAB, rear sensors, electric front windows, aircon, tray tables and the useful little storage bin in the top of the dash as standard. 

Anything but white paint is a £575 option on any car, you can pay £150 for a reversing camera on the Feel model, and keyless go is a £250 option on the Flair XTR, along with adaptive cruise at £200. Only the M model can be had with the panoramic roof and nifty storage (£750), as well as tow bar preparation (£250). 

Any issues? 

The e-Berlingo isn’t available with heated seats, steering wheel or windscreen, which is something of an oversight for an electric car – using the aircon to heat the cabin in winter uses up a lot of electricity. At least the rear windscreen and mirrors warm up, at any rate. If you’ve got home charging then you can use the Citroen app to preheat the cabin remotely, which is a useful feature common to most EVs these days. 

One particularly nice touch on the Flair XTR model is the opening rear windscreen, which comes with a beefy parcel shelf that can lowered down to halfway up the boot so you can pop things in via the back window. This is a useful feature because the rear boot hatch is so huge. If you’re limited on rear space where you park at home then this is definitely worth checking out before you commit to the Berlingo’s barn door of a boot. 

What about rivals? 

The most obvious rivals to the e-Berlingo are all cousins from the Stellantis group – Peugeot’s version of the car is the e-Rifter, and Vauxhall does the Combo Life Electric. The Peugeot starts at £31,600 and the Vauxhall starts at £32,510, so it’s mostly a case of sifting through the equipment levels and deciding which one you think looks nicest. The Berlingo holds its own well, to our eyes. 

There are of course electric seven-seaters available, but you’re looking at prices an order of magnitude higher when it comes to the likes of the Mercedes-Benx EQB or Tesla Model Y. Then again, perhaps you'd just be as well going for the nice Ford S-Max. It's been around forever and does cost from £38k, but it's probably still the best drive of this lot and comes with whatever powertrain you like as long as it's a petrol hybrid set-up.