What Van? Britain's biggest and best van buyers' guide

Citroen’s compact electric van, the e-Berlingo, is in the increasingly common position within the light commercial vehicle sector of competing with almost identical models by dint of the fact they are built on the same platform.

Cosmetically there may be differences, but under the skin the e-Berlingo mirrors its Stellantis brethren, the Peugeot e-Partner and Vauxhall Combo-e, as well as the Toyota Proace City Electric, which shares the same underpinnings.

So, how should customers choose which van to plump for? Fleets may wish to stick with the brand they have a long-standing relationship with. In this respect Citroen, Peugeot and Vauxhall offer wider and more established panel van ranges but Toyota is the only one that markets a pick-up truck.

Toyota also offers the most comprehensive aftersales package in the shape of the Toyota Relax Warranty, which extends for up to ten years/100,000 miles.

The e-Berlingo comes with a three-year/100,000 warranty, although the battery gets eight years/100,000 miles.

On the other hand, the Proace City Electric comes in a single trim level only and as a single-cab van in two lengths, the others offer more choice, including two trim levels and, as tested in the e-Berlingo here, a double-cab option.

The e-Berlingo Enterprise Crew Van comes with five seats: two at the front, providing the occupants with plenty of personal space due to the lack of the middle seat, and three in the rear. The lack of windows in the back does make for a rather claustrophobic and dark environment for rear-seat passengers, but on the plus side it increases security if you want to make use of the fold-down rear seat row to create more storage space. The repositionable mesh bulkhead can be used to free up more space under the seats as well.

With the rear seats and bulkhead in place, load volume is a modest 1.8m³ but payload is a more impressive 721kg. Storage provision inside the cabin is generous and includes an overhead shelf, 1.5L bottle holders in the front door pockets, a topbox storage compartment and cupholders at either end of the dashboard.

The e-Berlingo is powered by a 100kW (136hp) electric motor married to a 50kWh battery pack, which is housed underneath the load floor. The driving experience is top notch, owing to the innate smoothness and responsiveness of the electric motor that can deliver the 260Nm of torque instantly. It comes with three driving modes – eco, normal and power – which deliver 60%, 80% or 100% of the available power. Eco is the one to choose if you are driving the van unladen and are looking to get near to the claimed 171-mile battery range, while Normal is suited to everyday use with average loads and is the mode the e-Berlingo defaults to upon starting. 

Selecting Power mode makes the van extremely nippy when it comes to urban situations, which is so much fun that it is difficult to revert back to the two more sedate but range-preserving modes.

When making practical choices rather than pleasurable ones, Power is the mode that is best suited to long uphill stretches when driving fully laden or towing. The driver can select the most suitable mode for their journey from a toggle found on a unit protruding from the dashboard, which also houses a switch to select from drive, neutral or reverse.

Charging can be an issue, especially if you do not have access to a charging point at home or at work.

The e-Berlingo tested here came with a 7.4kW on-board charger. Plugged into a Source London public charging point we charged the battery from about one-third to three-quarters full in a little over three and a half-hours for a cost of £17.27. A full charge from 0 to 100% is said to take seven and a half-hours. The best option is to invest in a 100kW rapid charger to deliver an 80% battery charge in half an hour.