Vauxhall Grandland Review

The Vauxhall Grandland Electric is a 4.6-metre long, five-seat electric SUV, which sits on the same platform and uses the same electric powertrain and 73kWh battery as the Peugeot E-3008. A 98kWh battery will join the Grandland Electric lineup in 2025, bringing with it a range of up to 425 miles. You can’t get a seven-seat version of the Grandland, sadly, but you’ve got the Peugeot E-5008 or Mercedes EQB if it’s seven-seat versatility you’re after.

The 73kWh model will probably be the biggest seller in the Grandland, as it’s a good price and has a long WLTP range of up to 325 miles. It’s a smart-looking car, too, especially if you go for the metallic bronze paint. That ‘3D Vizor’ gloss grille looks pretty cool, and you even get illuminated Griffin logo and Vauxhall script on the back of the car if you go for one of the two top-spec trims. 

Range, Battery and Charging 

The Grandland gets two lithium-ion NMC batteries of 73- or 98kWh, which manage a WLTP combined range of 325- or 435 miles respectively. These are shoehorned into the latest Stellantis (which is the company that owns Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and many others) platform, called the STLA Medium platform. 

It’s the same platform that’s propping up the Peugeot E-3008 and E-5008, and so you also get the same peak charging speed of 160kW. That’s not bad at all; sure, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Tesla Model Y better it, but it’s faster than some rivals and will get you a 10-80% charge in around 30 minutes. 

Real-world range is fine. I had a drive of the 73kWh Grandland Electric at an early drive in Denmark for European Car of the Year judging, and managed 3.4m/kWh in warm conditions and varied driving, which is good for a real-world range of around 240 miles. You do get a heat pump as standard on the Grandland, which should help with winter efficiency, but we haven’t tried it in colder temperatures so I’ll make an educated guess that you’ll see around 200 miles in varied winter running. That’s much the same as you’ll see from the VW ID.4, in our experience, but you’ll go further before needing to charge in a Tesla Model Y or Renault Scenic.  

There’s currently no vehicle-to-load (V2L) or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging for the Vauxhall Grandland, but Peugeot has stated that it will be coming soon so I reckon you’ll be seeing it on Vauxhall before too long, as well. It’s still a shame that Stellantis has taken so long to sort V2L given that MG, Hyundai and Kia have been offering it for years.

Interior, Design/Styling and Technology

It’s pretty nice in the Grandland! This is definitely a selling point, with some really lovely, tactile materials and very comfy seats that have thigh- and lumbar-adjustment. Not only that, but there are proper air-con buttons, so you don’t have to use the screen or voice control to change the temperature, which I particularly like as I’m fed-up of struggling to stab the screen accurately enough for a small change in temperature. There’s a bit of intrigue with a glass-lidded wireless phone charging cubby, which is designed to keep your phone conveniently out of the way yet also leaving it visible so that you don’t forget it when you leave the car. It looks cool, I guess, although it feels a bit chintzy in an otherwise pleasantly straightforward cabin.

Okay, so it’s not as flashy as the interior in the E-3008, and others have sharper screen graphics, but the Vauxhall’s cabin feels airy, spacious and welcoming, and I rather like the fact that it’s a bit less fussy than the Peugeot’s to be honest. 

Naturally there’s a huge window of screens, including one behind the wheel for your speed and other essential info, and a huge touchscreen with configurable home shortcuts, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and all the features you want. It’s not a bad system, either; I’d say that BMW, Audi and even Kia have noticeably better nav systems and graphics quality, but the Vauxhall’s infotainment is pretty easy to get used to and does all the things you expect it to. 

Mind you, Nicola made a great point in her video (watch it, you know you want to!) that she finds the screen a bit too close to the driver, so your hand actually obscures the screen where your nav’s arrival time and all that stuff is displayed. It’s not ideal, that…

There’s tons of space in the Grandland, including a big 550-litre boot that’s verging on the same size as our perennial family favourite – the Skoda Enyaq. There’s underfloor cable storage, but no ‘frunk’, sadly. You can fold the seats in a 40/20/40 split, which is useful as you can drop the middle section to load longer items into the car while still carrying four passengers. There’s no sliding seats or clever versatility beyond that, though, which is a bit of a shame – I’d love to see family SUVs being a bit more creative with practicality. Where are the sliding, or even removable seats? Where are the in-built retractable dog guards? Where are the picnic tables and washable boot liners? 

Why don’t we expect more than just lots of legroom in a family SUV? Surely some of these ‘MPV’ features would still be really useful for the average family user? Anyway – that’s a rant for everyone, not just Vauxhall. 

Moving on from that, passengers in the back seats get loads of leg- and headroom, plus a centre armrest and a couple of USB-C charging ports, so the Grandland is a very decent, roomy family car. 

Motors, Performance and Handling

The Vauxhall Grandland Electric is one of those cars that’s just… fine. Nothing special, nothing terribly wrong, either. It’s not fast – the 207bhp electric motor will get the Grandland up to 62mph in 9.0 seconds, which is enough for a big family wagon like this, although it does feel pretty sedate by the standards of many of its rivals even if it’s got enough pace for everyday pottering. 

Handling is okay but unexceptional, too. The steering is decent, and you can weight it up with Sport mode or leave it in the lighter modes for wheeling through town, but there’s a lot of body movement. It leans in corners, and you even feel it jiggle about a bit when you come to a stop – although the brake pedal feel might have something to do with that, too. If you’d rather not use the brake pedal at all, you’re out of luck; there are three levels brake regen’ that you control on the steering wheel, but none are a full one-pedal mode like you get in the Nissan Ariya. 

As for comfort? Well, refinement is really good in the Vauxhall Grandland Electric; it’s quiet and chilled even at higher speeds. However, ride comfort could be better as on the 20-inch wheels of our test car it felt quite fidgety, especially around town. 

Running Costs and Pricing

The Vauxhall Grandland Electric is well priced. It starts at £40,995 for the base Design trim, which still gets all the touchscreen stuff, LED headlights, front- and rear- parking sensors, dual-zone climate control and adaptive cruise control. GS trim costs £43,135 and adds the 3D Vizor with illuminated badging on the front and back, contrast roof, an even bigger 16-inch touchscreen (which is what you’ll see in our pictures), that glass-lidded phone storage compartment, heated front seats and heated steering wheel. 

Step up to Ultimate for £45,195 and you get the panoramic glass roof,  handsfree tailgate, 360-degree camera and 20-inch alloy wheels.  

Those are really good list prices that undercut the Tesla Model Y, Peugeot E-3008 and Skoda Enyaq. Vauxhall is typically really good at offering low monthly finance deals, too, so it’s not difficult to negotiate a monthly PCP deal for well under £400 per month on one of the higher-spec Grandland Electric models, for a three-year contract with a reasonable deposit. 

You only get a three-year, 60,000 mile warranty, though. Which is disappointing in a world where Kia, Hyundai, MG, Peugeot and Toyota all offer much longer standard warranties.

Verdict 

The Grandland is not a bad car, but it is a rather middling one that may struggle to really justify itself in the very busy family SUV class. Having said that, if you can get a great deal then don’t discount the Grandland Electric – just stick to smaller wheels for the better ride comfort, and you’ve got a roomy, refined and smart-feeling family car at a great price.  

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