Peugeot e-Rifter review

Considering that the Peugeot e-Rifter has SUV-inspired styling, up to seven seats and is an all-electric vehicle, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’ll be expensive.

But no – the e-Rifter is available for a third of the price of the most notable vehicle that fulfils all those criteria, the Tesla Model X. That puts it in the same league as the Nissan e-NV200 Combi, as well as the Citroën e-Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo-e Life.

Now, those last two electric van-based MPVs are identical in many ways to the e-Rifter, so you might wonder why we haven't simply written one review for all three and left it at that. Well, there are lots of differences too, and we'll explain them over the next few pages to help you decide which car is best for you.

For starters, Peugeot has given the e-Rifter plenty of SUV styling cues to make it the most rugged-looking of the three. All models have lots of black plastic on the outside to shrug off small knocks, and top-spec models even have roof bars on the, er, roof.

The electric version – as with the regular Peugeot Rifter – has plenty of sophisticated driver aids as standard, including automatic emergency braking. It comes in the same two bodystyles too: the shorter five-seat M and the longer seven-seat XL.

Whichever e-Rifter you choose, you’ll have plenty of stowage space because the batteries don’t compromise boot capacity. There’s also loads of headroom due to its tall, van-derived body shape.

So practicality at least seems unaffected by the Rifter's conversion into an electric vehicle but how does the e-Rifter compare with the rivals you might be considering? Read on to find out.

Remember, when you next buy a new car, you could save thousands by searching the free What Car? New Car Buying service, which features lots of Peugeot Rifter deals.

The Peugeot e-Rifter's headline 0-62mph time of 11.2sec isn’t all that fast in the electric car world.

However, the 134bhp electric motor does make the e-Rifter almost as swift as the most powerful petrol and diesel versions of the Peugeot Rifter. What's more, that performance is available without delay once you step on the accelerator, so it has little trouble keeping up with traffic. 

The motor is powered by a 50kWh battery pack (the useable capacity is more like 45kWh), which is borrowed from the Citroën e-C4. You won’t be able to go as far as that car between charges because of the e-Rifter's less aerodynamic shape: the official WLTP range is 172 miles.

The e-Rifter is much more refined than the non-electric Rifter. There’s no three-cylinder thrum when you're accelerating, and you don’t have to put up with the odd vibrations you’ll experience in the automatic version when making low-speed manoeuvres.

The only potential disturbance is a slight amount of electric motor whine at motorway speeds. Wind and road noise are well contained too, although some traditional MPVs are better here, including the Volkswagen Touran.

The e-Rifter uses a small octagonal steering wheel (as found in the rest of the Peugeot range), which takes a little getting used to. The steering itself feels light for parking manoeuvres and is accurate enough to give you confidence on faster B-roads.

There’s a bit of body lean through quick corners, despite the heavy battery pack under the floor helping to keep the vehicle's weight low to the ground. Grip levels are decent, but this isn’t the right vehicle for quick changes of direction – you’ll need to look at conventional MPVs such as the Touran for better handling. 

The ride is supple over potholes around town, and doesn’t crash into expansion joints over bridges at higher speeds. Again, if you’re after maximum comfort, you’ll need to look at non-electric MPV rivals.

Aside from a couple of energy flow readouts on the infotainment screen, a different gear selector, plus a 10in digital driver's instrument cluster, there’s little inside the e-Rifter you won't find in the non-electric Peugeot Rifter.

The i-Cockpit interior design distinguishes it from the Citroën e-Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo-e Life. It's been a feature of a few Peugeot models, and on early versions some drivers found that the low-set steering wheel blocked their view of the instrument cluster. That's not the case with the e-Rifter, though, because the height-adjustable seat and the reach and rake adjustment of the steering wheel make it easy to find the right position.

All-round visibility is good, too, as a result of a large glass area. Plus, the reasonably high-set driving position combines with a short front overhang to make it easy to judge the car’s front extremities. Rear parking sensors and a reversing camera are standard, while front sensors are optional. 

The dashboard is big, chunky, eye-catching and quite logically laid out, with minor controls that are easy to find and operate. The quality of the materials used is fine, although there’s still plenty of scratchy stuff around, including hard and rather utilitarian plastics lower down. Durability, rather than a luxury feel, is the dominant sensation here.

Pleasingly, you can control the e-Rifter's ventilation functions with physical buttons rather than through the infotainment touchscreen, which is much easier when you're driving.

The 8.0in infotainment system does contain many sub-menus, so it doesn't have the simplicity of the screen in, for example, the Volkswagen Touran. Also, some of the e-Rifter’s graphics are rather small and hard to decipher, especially on the move.

Every e-Rifter comes with a DAB radio, Bluetooth, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring (so you can run your phone apps through the infotainment screen).

The e-Rifter has just as much interior space as the standard Peugeot Rifter. With its tall roofline, it has lots of room up front, even with the aeroplane-style overhead stowage compartments. There’s also plenty of shoulder room for the driver and front passenger.

What's more, the standard centre console between the front seats provides lots of additional storage (the Citroën e-Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo-e Life don't have this). You also get large door bins and two gloveboxes in front of the passenger seat – although the lower one doesn’t have a cover.

The sliding rear doors make access to the back seats easy, even in tight parking spaces. Second-row passengers get three identically sized seats with a vast amount of head room and enough leg room for six-footers. The two outer seats have Isofix child-seat mounting points.

One disappointment in five-seat versions is that the rear seats can't be slid back and forth, reclined or tumbled forward as is possible in the best MPVs.

XL models still have a good-sized boot when all seven seats are in place and, when not needed, the rear two can be removed to leave a space that's quite simply huge. If you go for the shorter five-seat M version, you're unlikely to be disappointed by the amount of luggage you can squeeze in.

As a bonus, the front passenger seat folds completely flat so you can use the full length of the car if you need to carry a long load. The second-row seats fold in a 60/40 split unless you specify the 35/30/35 split option, or go for GT, which features three seats that fold individually.

The huge (and quite awkward) tailgate opens up to reveal a very low loading lip, or you can just open the rear window independently to throw items inside in tight parking spaces.

The Peugeot e-Rifter's pricing has been adjusted so that the entry-level Allure Premium five-seater version qualifies for a government electric car grant. The Citroën e-Berlingo still starts at a lower list price, but that comes with a lot less equipment. Sadly, no seven-seat version qualifies for the grant, but you can get it with a well-specced Vauxhall Combo-e Life.

Due to its higher list price, the e-Rifter costs the most per month compared with the e-Rifter and e-Berlingo. It does have better resale values than the Combo-e Life, though, so the e-Rifter will be worth more in three years.

It should be exceptionally cheap to run because there’s no yearly VED road tax to pay, and home charging on an Economy 7 tariff should be much cheaper than filling up with petrol or diesel.

Standard equipment is generous on Allure Premium models: you get air-con, automatic lights and wipers, cruise control, plus the 8.0in infotainment system, rear parking sensors and reversing camera. 

Stepping up to GT trim gives you larger 17in alloy wheels, electric rear windows, dual-zone climate control, gloss-black exterior trim pieces and some brown interior accents. On the whole, the standard (Allure Premium) car gets all the equipment you’d need.

You also get lots of safety features, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assistance and traffic-sign recognition. While the e-Rifter hasn’t yet been tested by Euro NCAP, the regular Peugeot Rifter scored four stars out of five. It was deemed that the AEB system wasn't especially effective but there were few quibbles over its structural integrity. 

As a brand, Peugeot ranked a disappointing 22nd out of 30 manufacturers in the 2021 What Car? Reliability Survey – putting it behind Citroën and Volkswagen, and only just ahead of Vauxhall and Ford. Its three years or 60,000 miles warranty is good, but hardly class-leading, while the eight years or 100,000 miles warranty for the battery is par for the course.

Charging the e-Rifter will take a little over seven hours from a wall charger, or roughly 30 mins from 10-80% on a 100kWh rapid charger. 

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