Toyota Proace City Electric

Practical Proace City Electric shows it has a fun side

Who says driving CVs has to be dull? The Toyota Proace City Electric makes every day behind the wheel a joy, says Andrew Walker

The Toyota Proace City Electric is a great package for van operators: a small electric van, with a cargo area of up to 3.3 cu. m3 and a useful battery electric range of 161 miles. Like the larger Proace Electric, it is built in conjunction with the Stellantis small electric vans from Citroen, Peugeot and Vauxhall, and gives Toyota another string to its bow in the electric van marketplace. We drove one recently and here’s what we thought.

Model range, specification and equipment

SWB and LWB panel van versions are offered. The shorter wheelbase models have an 800kg payload, while long-wheelbase models have a 750kg payload, but come with a larger loading area. Both versions feature the same 50kWh battery, which offers a WLTP range of 168 miles.

In SWB or LWB versions, the City is offered only in Icon spec. Fear not, however, as Icon offers plenty of standard equipment, including two sliding side doors, a reversing camera, smartphone integration for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, front parking sensors, a reversing camera, DAB, two USB’s, air-con and cruise control.

Performance and charging

The 50kWh battery uses a 100kW electric motor, putting out the equivalent of 136bhp. This is good enough for a top speed of 80 mph, but it’s the instant torque that’s most impressive, making forward progress smooth as well as silent.

Fast charging is included as standard. This means that the City Electric can top up its battery from 0-80 per cent using a 100kW rapid charger, in just 30 minutes. This is quite expensive so most of your charging will take place at home, where using a 7kW charger, like our own Rolec Smart Charger, charging the 50kWh battery from 0-100 per cent will take 7.5 hours. Toyota also offers the option to upgrade from 7kW Type 2 charging capability to 11kW, so a home charge can take as little as 4.5 hours

Saving cash on charging

Increasing energy prices are likely to be making many potential electric van customers pause before taking the plunge. Perhaps now is not the right time to ditch petrol/diesel?

It’s true, electric vans come with a higher initial purchase price – and the cost of recharging is rising. But it’s not going up as fast as fossil fuel prices, and what we say is that there are ways to ensure that your electric van saves you as much money as possible, so here are a few tips. First, always charge your City Electric at home where prices are cheapest.

Second, and just as important, switch your electric supplier and tariff to one that offers cheaper overnight electricity prices, such as Octopus Go.

For example, using the EV Energy App, who partner Rolec, you can set your charger to only charge at off-peak times and can even set a price per kWh limit.

Rivals

So who are the rivals? Well, obviously, Peugeot, Vauxhall and Citroen offer their own versions of the City Electric. Later in 2022 Renault’s new Kangoo E-Tech, Mercedes-Benz eCitan and Nissan’s electric Townstar will arrive and of course, there’s our reigning Small Electric Van of the Year, the Maxus eDeliver 3. All are worth a look but the City Electric has got a touch of something special about it. Read on...

What’s really appealing about City Electric is that it drives like a small electric family car... steering is light and the auto gearbox easy to operate... ‘‘

Continued from page 30 Interior and exterior

We were testing the Proace City Electric Icon L1 50kW model. The electric City looks just like the diesel model, with just a slight nod to it’s electric roots, namely an ELECTRIC logos on the rear door and front nearside.

The interior has a car-like feel to it, with the dashboard dominated by the colour touchscreen. It’s also finished in nicely textured plastics, with the grey seat fabric looking and feeling hard wearing.

I had a good look around my test van before I took it out and it featured the Toyota Smart Cargo bulkhead with a hatch, allowing a longer load length to fit into the cargo area and into the front rear left passenger footwell. After January’s recent storms I needed to repair a fence so required two 3m lengths of wood. I was able to slide these over the front passenger seat into the perfectly placed dashboard gap, managing to just close the rear doors. Perfect!

There’s also under passenger seat storage, large enough to store a small bag, two decent sized door pockets, storage between the front seats, twin drinks holders on the dash top and space lower down for odds and ends.

The only negative is that the centre-front seat doesn’t offer much legroom, though the twin sliding side doors and 180° opening rear doors make getting in and out of the van easy.

On the road

What’s really appealing about City Electric is that it drives like a small electric family car. Steering is light and the auto gearbox, located just to the left of the driver, is easy to operate. Here you can select from Park, Reverse, Neutral or Drive with another setting, ‘B’, that adds two levels of regenerative braking to the equation. There also three drive modes: Eco, which slows everything down and turns of the heating; Normal, in which we drove all week; and Power, useful if your van is heavily laden.

In Power mode, you get the van’s full 134bhp and the most fun, with quick acceleration from a standing start. The downside is that it reduces the range considerably. The 108bhp you get with Normal mode is the level we used, primarily because it was cold. This gives you a good amount of throttle response. Selecting ‘B’ mode in the gear selector puts some energy back into the battery when coasting. It’s not really noticeable and certainly doesn’t offer anything strong enough to allow for singlepedal driving.

On the motorway, the City Electric drives nicely. The cabin is quiet thanks in part to the full steel bulkhead and the seats offer a firm and supportive ride. The driver’s view of the road is good and all of the switches and buttons fall easily to hand.

‘The City Electric also does a good job of masking the battery weight under the floor plan, making it a fun, small van to drive, especially in town...’

Continued from page 32

The Icon is fitted as standard with cruise control, which allows you to select your motorway speed, which in turn aids battery range. The City Electric also does a good job of masking the battery weight under the floor plan, making it a fun small van to drive, especially in town.

Range

Once I had charged the City Electric fully at home on my Rolec charger, (https://www. rolecserv.com/home-charging), the total battery range showing was 161 miles in Eco and 151 miles in Normal. Some local journeys saw us achieve the holy grail of a 1:1 ratio of distance travelled to range used. As with all EVs, though, the range isn’t as great when you drive over 65 mph or in low temperatures. We took a 50-mile motorway spin in February, with outside temperatures of just 3 degrees celsius. Travelling at a constant 65mph, we used up 68 miles of range.

Pros

Excellent payload, great to drive, top-notch cabin, on-trend tech and if driven carefully, expect a range of 130 miles.

As with the firm’s passenger cars, the Proace City Electric is covered by Toyota’s 10-year service warranty, which should bring added peace of mind to business users tempted to make the switch to electric. It’s worth noting that its Stellantis competitors are not as generous with their warranties.

Cons

The Proace City Electric Icon comes supplied with a higher spec than the Stellantis versions, which makes is a little more expensive. Like all EVs, be aware that very cold weather and a heavy right foot will affect your vehicle’s range.

Conclusion

If you drive the length and breadth of the UK, any electric van is not going to be for you. The range is too small and at motorway speeds, the battery drains far faster.

However, if your van use is local, even regional, then a van such as the Proace City Electric could be a solution. An electric van is plainly cleaner, you don’t need to pay vehicle excise duty and EVs are currently Congestion Charge exempt. And we haven’t even mentioned the fuel savings you’ll achieve in an electric van, which will typically cut your monthly expenditure on diesel by 75 per cent.

Furthermore, the Proace City Electric offers a competitive payload, comes complete with the latest tech and safety features and offers the reassurance of Toyota’s 10-year service warranty.

INTERIOR DIMENSIONS

Volvo XC60

Interior length (mm) Interior width (mm) Interior height (mm) Deck length (mm) Deck width (mm) 3090 mm 1229 mm 1200 mm 1817 mm 1527 mm

Deck height (mm) 1200 mm

Load volume with Smart Cargo (2 seats, m³) 3.8 m³ Loading length with Smart Cargo (2 seats, mm) 3090 mm Load volume (m³) 3.3 m³

CC&V VERDICT

A great van to drive, good range if you are focused on short-run urban deliveries and gives you the ecocredentials you may be looking for. Will also save money in the long run in the charging v petrol/diesel debate – and don’t ignore the warranty offer, either

CC&V RATING:

N N N N