New Car Review: Citroën Ë-Berlingo

The Citroën Ë-Berlingo is the latest version of the much-loved Berlingo passenger model, which has been a firm favourite for a few generations now. Now, it will be only offered as an electric vehicle in a passenger model and there are two sizes, the Medium Wheelbase and the Long Wheelbase, which is 35cm longer. There are also two seat options; the five-seater, which we were driving and for €1,000 more, the 7-seater, which only comes with the Long Wheelbase body style. It comes with the familiar 50kWh battery and 100kW electric motor combination that doesn’t offer the longest of ranges, but if this doesn’t bother you, this will be one of the best family buys of 2022 and beyond.

The Citroën Ë-Berlingo is of course based on a van, but rather a pretty one, so despite the fact that it is very square, the Citroën Ë-Berlingo is not half bad-looking. Certainly this writer likes the looks, although his children weren’t massively pushed when it arrived at the school gates. The extra 35cm of the longer wheelbase model provide for massive amounts of space, but it does make the car look a little more awkward than the arguable prettier medium wheelbase model, but should you choose the 7-seater version, then this by default comes with the longer wheelbase size.

The interior of the Citroën Ë-Berlingo is very functional and has a ton of storage spaces littered throughout, with cubby holes and compartments everywhere, including overhead. It is a well-laid out cabin, let down slightly by the use of some poorer quality plastics, which are most evident on the doors and around the back of the dashboard, but thankfully the parts you touch most, such as the steering wheel have the right materials and feel good. There is a decent infotainment system, right out of the Stellantis Group’s parts bin, which although not the best system on its own, has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which by now is the default choice for many, allowing you to use Google Maps, Spotify and check your calendar. It will also read out your WhatsApp messages too. In the rear, of our five-seat version, there are three individual seats that can fold and rear legroom is only really ‘ok’ as the second row sits very far forward compared to the vast space behind.

There is 775-litres of space in the medium wheelbase version behind the second row of seats and in the longer wheelbase version that grows to 1050-litre and that is truly enormous, capable of swallowing bikes whole. Tilt the second row of seats and this truly becomes a van. There are sliding doors for access to the rear, which makes getting in and out of car parks a doddle, but there is a note of caution in that the rear door is very large and that can cause some issues if you are rammed up against a wall or parked close to a car. However, the rear window does open for access to the boot.

The Citroën Ë-Berlingo, as we have said, is based on a van and drives accordingly, with very, very light steering and decent all-round visibility. As we’ve mentioned, this is only now available as a passenger car with an electric powertrain and it is the 50kWh battery / 100kW electric motor combination we have seen across Opel, Citroën and Peugeot. It puts out 136PS and this doesn’t feel super urgent like some EVs, but it is more than adequate, but where it runs into some challenges are when it comes to range as the official WLTP range is a rather limiting 280km and that obviously isn’t something that happens every day.

The more realistic range is around 230km and while that it more than fine if you intend to run to the shops and school and drop the kids to their sports it does lend itself to challenges if you want to go much further, more often. For this writer, with a home charger installed, it was fine and never really became an issue and we think for the most part, with the intended uses of this model then it should be fine.

Driving it around town, the light steering is a benefit, as it is a really easy car to navigate. Visibility is excellent thanks to the large glass areas and while the handling isn’t brilliant, it is fine. This isn’t a car you would necessarily want to fling about as your kids wouldn’t thank you for it we suspect.

There are three driving modes, Eco, Normal and Power and these do as their name suggests. Normal mode offers the best compromise between driving range and performance, Eco mode optimises electricity consumption and power mode maintains vehicle performance at a maximum charge.

The Citroën Ë-Berlingo comes with a choice of two 5-seat models, with Feel Pack MWB for €35,394 and the Feel Pack LWB for €36,706. The 7-seater model will come only as a LWB model for €37,706. Standard equipment is excellent – with 16” “Starlit” black alloy wheels, 8-inch touchscreen interface, rear parking sensors with Visiopark 180 top rear vision camera.

The  previous Berlingo got 4-stars in the Euro NCAP safety tests and comes with a Safety Pack, which includes Active Lane Keeping Assist, Speed Limit recognition and recommendation, Active Safety Brake, Driver Attention Alert, Intelligent Beam Headlights. There are also three ISOFIX anchors in the second row of seats.