Vauxhall Grandland (2024 - ) Electric review

Carmakers are divided on the best way to electrify their products, some sticking with combustion or hybrid power for their existing models and creating standalone families of electric alternatives, much like Volkswagen has with the Tiguan and ID.4. In contrast Vauxhall prefers to offer a single model with a choice of combustion, hybrid and electric power, which is what we have with the Grandland. For consumers the latter approach simplifies the buying process, given you can compare purchase and running costs on a like-for-like basis and choose according to your budget or situation. Credit is also due for Vauxhall’s stated goal of price parity for combustion and electric versions of the same car, at least on monthly finance costs. True, you’re not comparing like with like given the electric version is still more expensive and it’s offered over a five-year term rather than the four years of the petrol. But the monthly cost most people look at is the same, offering chance to test the theory an electric car’s running costs can be lower over the course of a typical ownership cycle. To that end Vauxhall offers a £500 contribution to either a home wallbox if you have facility to install one or public charging if you don’t have the necessary off-street parking. All of the above hopefully helps the Vauxhall fend off new rivals to the sector, including the cheaper Leapmotor C10 it will sell alongside now the Chinese brand is part of the wider Stellantis group of which Vauxhall is also a part.

Early days yet, given the technology the Grandland is built on is all new. But it is shared with other brands within the wider Stellantis family like Peugeot, which itself has an excellent reputation for reliability. With these pooled resources and expertise we’d hope Vauxhall can deliver the same.

Safety is a priority for Grandland’s target audience and the car comes with the kit you’d expect of a modern family SUV, including radar-monitored adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, automatic emergency braking and the now compulsory driver monitoring and speed limit ‘adaptation’ driven by traffic sign recognition. A pity the latter, like so many similar systems, is so lousy at actually recognising the posted limits and often calls it wrong. You can at least set a ‘hot key’ on the dash to turn these more annoying systems off, though you still have to do it every time you get in the car. Fancy LED headlights promising ‘to turn night into day’ come on the second rung of the trim ladder but you only get the genuinely useful rear cross traffic alert (basically a warning if there’s an unseen vehicle behind you as you back out of a space) on the top spec model.

Vauxhall’s long-standing partnership with a German organisation promoting spinal health gets official certification from the latter for the front seats on Grandlands from the mid trim level and up, the balance between squishiness and support seemingly well-judged. The raised seating position and excellent visibility – the latter not a given for cars of this type, it has to be said – also put you in a positive frame of mind and help confidence when manoeuvring what is an otherwise chunky vehicle. The flat floor in the back also means all three rear-seat passengers get a reasonable deal, with excellent headroom and enough legroom for a six-foot passenger to sit comfortably behind a driver of equivalent stature. The boot is a good size as well, the two-level floor offering the choice between hidden stash space and maximum load-carrying capacity. There’s also lots of useful storage dotted around the cabin. All you’d hope for with a family-friendly SUV or crossover in other words, while on the road the suspension strikes a well-judged balance between comfort and stability in the corners. There was a little brittleness at lower speeds around town, especially on the bigger 20-inch wheels of the electric version we tried and even with the fancier rear suspension it gets as standard. But comfort and refinement are otherwise decent.

We the like the simplicity of Vauxhall’s three-step trim hierarchy, and fact options are limited to just leather upholstery and a panoramic sunroof. All of which makes it a lot easier to pick the model that best suits your needs and budget. Base Design versions get the smaller of the two screen set-ups and lack built-in navigation and other features. But you can run wireless CarPlay and Android Auto in their absence, and you do get dual-zone climate control and front and rear parking sensors among the standard kit. Going up a level gets you the much bigger central screen, though its wide and narrow shape is less useful for navigation than the portrait ones in some rivals and, while the menus and graphics are reasonably intuitive, they are functional rather than fancy. This mid trim level is still worth the extra money for the improved tech, and some neat features like the ‘Pixel Box’ tucking your phone out of temptation’s way on a wireless charging pad beneath a transparent lid in the centre console. Heated front seats and steering wheel will also be welcome on colder days, while (based on our experience) the kids should enjoy the configurable ambient lighting also included here. More expensive Ultimate trim adds a few more luxuries like a heated windscreen and fancier climate control, which are nice to haves but not essential.

As it stands your choices for the Grandland are a 1.2-litre petrol with what’s known as mild hybrid assistance (basically a fancier stop/start system) and a fully electric option. We tried both, the petrol doing its best and adequate around town but somewhat overwhelmed by the Grandland’s size and bulk on hillier or faster roads. If you regularly travel with a full complement of people and kit onboard it’ll likely be even more strained. The electric version is more powerful on paper but also a lot heavier due to the batteries, so while faster perhaps not as quick as you might expect. It does at least have that silent and effortless acceleration we enjoy in electric cars, and is pleasingly simple to drive. Where in some cars the driver modes are little more than a novelty on Vauxhalls they do have a meaningful effect on performance but Normal felt fine for most situations. We also appreciated the ease of adjusting the regenerative braking via paddles on the steering wheel, even if it’s still not a true ‘one-pedal’ system so you have to dab the brakes to come to a complete stop, even in its most assertive mode. Some fast German autobahn ruined any meaningful assessment of efficiency but Vauxhall claims a best-case 325 miles of range for the standard version, a bigger battery option capable of well over 400 miles coming in due course. Nice in theory but the extra cost and weight are a burden most drivers probably don’t need to carry, and we’d be happy with the standard set-up.