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The What Van? Road Test: Toyota Proace City Electric (2021)
Date: Monday, April 11, 2022
Interior and equipment
City Electrics are three-seaters and feature something called smart cargo. The outermost passenger seat folds down to make it easier for extra-long pipes, planks and so on to be pushed through a hatch in the bulkhead, and transported without sticking out through the back doors.
Making use of the smart cargo feature extends the length of the 1,817mm load bed by a, potentially very useful, 1,273mm.
Three seats in a cab of this size are of limited value given that an adult occupant of the middle seat has no legroom whatsoever. Shoulder room is at a premium too.
On the positive side, the back of the middle seat can be folded down to create a desk, and you will find a compartment for valuable items – your phone for instance – under the cushion.
Proace City Electric comes with a high level of specification. The roster embraces manual air-conditioning, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, automatic headlights and wipers, cruise control with an adjustable speed limiter, roof rails and front fog lights.
Also installed is a multi-media package with an 8in colour touchscreen plus smartphone integration with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Bluetooth and two USB ports are provided too, as is a DAB radio, while a 12v power point is positioned close to the floor.
For your money you also benefit from automatic headlights and wipers, electric windows as well as heated, power-operated and power-folding exterior mirrors.
Remote audio controls are located on the steering wheel. Both the wheel and the driver’s seat are height-adjustable, and the seat boasts lumbar adjustment as well as an armrest.
In-cab storage facilities include a full-width shelf above the windscreen, two bins, one big, one small, in each of the doors, a lidded but not lockable glove-box with a roomy cubby-hole beneath, a lidded compartment above the instrument panel and a shelf behind the upstanding touchscreen. Cup-holders are positioned at each end of the dashboard, and there is a third one for the middle passenger to use on a centre console.
All the usual electronic safety systems are present and correct.
The line-up includes ABS with electronic brakeforce distribution and brake assist, vehicle stability control, hill-start assist control and downhill assist control. A tyre pressure monitoring system is installed, as are driver and front passenger airbags.
Disc brakes – ventilated at the front, solid at the back – are fitted all round, while the steering is rack-and-pinion.
MacPherson strut-type suspension is installed at the front and a torsion beam set-up is deployed at the back. City Electrics sit on 16in steel wheels, shod in our case with 215/65 R16 Michelin Primacy 3 tyres, graced with plastic trims.
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