Vauxhall Grandland Electric review

Vauxhall initially started off selling the Grandland Electric at around £41k, but knocked the price down not long after the car went on sale, and it now qualifies for the Electric Car Grant (eligible for cars under £37k) on top of that. 

That means the FWD currently starts at £36,055, barely a couple of hundred quid more than the petrol version of the car. That’s in base spec Design trim.

Vauxhall has also priced the AWD below the Electric Car Grant threshold, meaning that even though it requires you to step up a trim level to GS spec, it starts from just £36,095. That’s less than the FWD version in this trim, which starts from £37,605.

It’s a similar story for the top spec Ultimate trim (£37,595/£39,095 respectively), and means like for like, the Grandland Electric comes in a good chunk cheaper than its closest rival, the Peugeot e-3008.

If you went for the mid-range GS car on Vauxhall's PCP scheme you'd be looking at around £358 a month over four years/40,000 miles with a 10 per cent deposit down.

What are the trims like?

Base-spec Design gets you 19in alloys, LED lights front and rear, 10in digital dash and touchscreen infotainment with wireless Apple/Android, front and rear parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, electric folding mirrors and adaptive cruise control.

GS trim gets a fancier look thanks to diamond-cut alloys, a light up grille and matrix headlights, exterior styling tweaks and rear tinted windows. Inside you get a heated steering wheel and heated front seats, ambient lighting, larger 16in infotainment with satnav, wireless phone charging and a rearview camera.

Finally, range-topping Ultimate spec gets you 20in alloys, a heated windscreen, electric tailgate, panoramic glass roof, head-up display, a juicier sound system and 360-degree parking cameras.

Which one should I go for?

The twinkly front-end graphics with the light-up grille and the welcome show from the matrix headlights are deeply naff, but we’d still go for the mid-range GS spec single motor for the heated steering wheel and front seats.

All Grandland Electrics come with a heat pump as standard, which is a nice touch, but Vauxhall probably had no choice when they saw how inefficient the car is in the cold.