Citroen's E-Berlingo makes electric easy, says Dan Gilkes

ROAD TEST | CITROEN E-BERLINGO

ELECTRIC MADE EASY

Citroen completes its electric line-up with the launch of the E-Berlingo, says Dan Gilkes.

The compact high-cube market is no stranger to electric propulsion, with Renault’s Kangoo Z.E. and the Nissan e-NV200 pioneering battery power for more than a decade. Other manufacturers have moved into the mid-weight and heavy van markets, but these two compact vans have had little competition at the lighter end, until now.

As Stellantis builds on the success of its mid-weight e-LCV, available through its various brands, the company is now turning its attention to the lighter end of the market, with models like this E-Berlingo.

Powertrain

As with the diesel-powered models, the compact E-Berlingo owes much to its larger E-Dispatch stablemate. That extends beyond the internal and external family appearance, to the electric driveline. However, while the larger van is offered with a choice of 50kWh or 75kWh battery packs, the smaller model makes do with the 50kWh only, though that is still enough to offer a promised 171 miles of driving range.

The E-Berlingo does use the same 100kW (136hp) drive motor as the larger vans though, with its Eco, Normal and Power driving modes offering 60%, 80% or 100% of the available power and torque to suit the driving conditions. You also get the B brake regeneration button that, as long as you have less than about 80% of battery charge, will provide serious braking effort when you lift off the throttle pedal.

Charging

As with the larger Stellantis van, the E-Berlingo has both 7.4kW Type 2 regular charging input and CCS rapid charging capability, that can cope with up to 100kW rapid inputs. That means that a standard home wallbox will take around 7.5 hours to fully charge the battery from empty, while a rapid charger can put 80% of battery charge in within just 30 minutes. This would allow an operator to almost double their daily mileage range with a well-planned lunchtime recharge.

In truth though, the majority of urban compact van users will probably find the standard 171-mile range more than enough for daily use. As with the larger vans, the battery gets an 8-year/100,000-mile warranty.

Load carrying capacity

There are two models available in terms of size, M and XL. The M vans have a load volume of 3.3m3, that can be extended to 3.9m3 when the van Continued overleaf

Citroen E-Berlingo Enterprise Pro M 50kWh

Basic price £24,910 (after £3,000 PiVG) Motor electric Power 100kW (136hp) Torque 260Nm Weights (kg) GVW 2,410 Kerb weight 1,607 Payload 803Towing 750kg Dimensions (mm) Load space length 1,817Load space width 1,550 Width between wheel arches 1,072 Load space height 480Load volume 3.3m3/3.9m3 with Extenso Cost considerations Battery capacity 50kWh Range 171 miles CO2 0 Service interval 2 year/25,000 miles Warranty 3 years/100,000 miles (battery 8 years/100,000 miles)