Vauxhall Grandland Electric review

Like a collector scrambling to complete their prized collection of football cards, Vauxhall has finally completed its collection of electric cars with the new Vauxhall Grandland Electric. 

It’s quite an impressive feat and it makes Vauxhall one of the first brands to successfully offer an electric version of every car that it sells, with even the revived Vauxhall Frontera hitting showrooms in both hybrid and electric forms. 

Of course, the petrol-powered Vauxhall Grandland has been around for quite some time, but this is the first time that Vauxhall has offered it in electric form (it’s also the largest EV the brand has ever offered). So, to make sure it has maximum impact, Vauxhall hasn’t done things by half, giving the Grandland a big battery, a competitive range and a spacious interior.

However, Grandland Electric is going to need all of those things if it’s going to compete against the best electric SUVs, including the Kia EV6, Skoda Enyaq and Tesla Model Y, as well as the closely-related Peugeot e-3008. Formidable foes, but does the Grandland have what it takes? Let’s find out... 

While there are plans for a long range version (with a 93kWh battery and a range of more than 400 miles), at the moment you can only have the Grandland Electric with a 73kWh (usable capacity) battery and a 210bhp electric motor. 

As a result, the Grandland has an official 0-62mph sprint time of just 9.0 seconds, which should be plenty fast enough in any situation. The thing is, in practice, it feels way slower and it never really gives you a sudden dose of power that pushes you back into your seat, as you would get if you planted your foot in the Skoda Enyaq. 

It still has enough oomph to get up to motorway speeds easily enough, but it just doesn’t pick up speed quickly enough to make overtaking as much of a doddle as in rivals. That’s even true when you put it in Sport mode and have access to the full 210bhp. 

In entry-level form, the Grandland Electric can cover an impressive 325 miles officially between charges, which is the same as the Peugeot e-3008, but plenty farther than the similarly priced Enyaq 50 and more expensive Ford Mustang Mach-E Select. 

The problem is that, as the price steps up, bigger wheels and more equipment means that the range also drops. In fact, the top-spec Ultimate will cover 318 miles officially but it’s priced at around the same as rivals with bigger batteries, including the Kia EV6 Air (which will cover up to 361 miles), the Enyaq 85 (up to 358 miles) and the Tesla Model Y Long Range Rear Wheel Drive (up to 373 miles). 

When it comes to ride comfort, the Grandland Electric is best described as unsettled. Now, it’s not uncomfortable at any point and it doesn’t thud over potholes, it’s just that it’s firm enough that there’s a constant fidget as you drive along. In fact, it never really goes away – it’s better at speed, but never absent. It’s better than the Model Y, but the Audi Q4 e-tron is more comfortable, as is the EV6. 

An upside to the firmness is that the Grandland Electric’s body is well controlled, not swaying you around over undulations or leaning as you drive through faster corners. Even so, it still isn’t particularly fun to drive, because its overly light steering and inconsistent brake pedal detract from the driving experience.

True, you can strengthen the level of regenerative braking to remove a lot of the need to brake with the pedal, but it’s not quite as smooth or well-rounded to drive as the EV6. 

Better news comes when we look at refinement, with the Grandland proving nice and calm at a cruise, sending very little wind and road noise into the interior. Even around town, there’s very little noise from the electric motor. 

“With its great body control, it’s a shame the Grandland isn’t more fun to drive. I find it just doesn’t give you confidence to push on, especially on damp roads, where it quickly runs out of front end grip.” – Neil Winn, Deputy Reviews Editor

You sit nice and high up in the Vauxhall Grandland Electric and the driving position itself is good. Better still, every Grandland comes with plenty of seat and steering wheel adjustment, which makes it really easy to get comfortable.

The good news continues when it comes to the dashboard layout too. You see, Vauxhall says that it wants to keep its interiors simple, so you can focus on driving with a logical layout and physical buttons for the climate control system. We much prefer this set-up to the touchscreen-only system you’ll find in the Skoda Enyaq or the separate touchscreen buttons that you’ll find in the Peugeot e-3008. 

Forward visibility is pretty good in the Grandland Electric, with the elevated driving position giving you a good view out over the front of the car and slim windscreen pillars allowing for plenty of visibility at junctions. 

Things aren’t quite as good when it comes to rear visibility though. The view over your shoulder is decent enough, but the shallow rear window means that you can’t see that much out the back. Luckily, to make parking easier, front and rear parking sensors come as standard, with a rear-view camera added from mid-spec GS and a 360-degree camera on the top-spec Ultimate. 

Those two trims also upgrade the touchscreen infotainment system from 10.0in (with Design trim) to 16.0in. So far, we’ve only tried the bigger screen but it’s quite impressive, reacting quickly to prods and showing you information in really clear high definition.

You get a few physical shortcut buttons, but most of its menus require you to use the touchscreen, which isn’t ideal. That said, the Vauxhall’s system is better laid out and it has simpler menus than what you’ll find in the e-3008. 

It gets a good amount of features as standard, including DAB radio, Bluetooth and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring. Built-in sat-nav is added if you go for the larger screen too. 

We were never particularly impressed by the Grandland’s interior in previous petrol-powered versions, but things have vastly improved as of late; the Grandland Electric’s interior is a nice place to be with varied soft-touch materials giving it plenty of showroom appeal. There are some hard plastics around, but they’ve been hidden low-down and you won’t really notice them. 

It doesn’t quite have the wow factor of the e-3008’s interior, but it’s more interesting than the reserved interior of the Tesla Model Y. It feels pretty well built too, if not quite as good as the Kia EV6. 

I think it’s great that the Grandland Electric’s interior has so many physical controls, because it’s so much easier to make adjustments without looking away from the road.” – Claire Evans, Consumer Editor

Even if you have a pair of broad six-footers sitting in both of the front seats, they’ll have plenty of space to get comfortable and shoulder room to spare. 

They’ll have loads of space to store various items too. In fact, Vauxhall says the Grandland offers the same amount of storage space as you get in a carry-on sized suitcase. That’s pretty impressive; the space comes in the form of large door bins, a refrigerated cubby beneath the central armrest, and a storage area underneath the centre console. If you go for GS or above, that’s where you’ll find wireless phone charging. 

As in the front, there’s plenty of space for those measuring six-feet tall in the back seats, with plenty of head, knee and leg room on offer. Middle seat passengers, meanwhile, will be happy to know that there’s no central tunnel to straddle your feet over, plus there’s enough shoulder room for three people to get comfortable. Just bear in mind the Kia EV6 is even more generous, as is the Toyota BZ4X. 

Every Grandland comes with rear seats that split in the versatile 40/20/40 configuration and fold totally flat. That’s better than the 60/40 split you get in the Ford Mustang Mach-E, plus it means you can load long items through from the boot without losing one of the outer seats.

That said, with a 550-litre boot (the same as the Grandland Hybrid), you might not need to fold the rear seats all that often. You see, the boot is bigger than you’ll find in the Mustang Mach-E, EV6 or Peugeot e-3008, and it should easily swallow a couple of pushchairs or a large weekly shop. If you need more space, the Skoda Enyaq has an even bigger boot. 

“Compared with older versions of the Grandland, this latest version has grown in all directions, with the most notable change being the extra 17cm in length. This pays dividends in the boot, where I could easily fit several carry-on suitcases and backpacks inside”. – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

As a cash purchase, the Vauxhall Grandland Electric will cost you more than the entry-level Skoda Enyaq, but less than its other rivals, including the closely related Peugeot e-3008. Better still, the Grandland Electric is predicted to depreciate slower than most of its rivals, losing its value slower than the Kia EV6, the e-3008 and the Enyaq. That can have an effect on how much you’ll pay per month on a PCP finance deal. 

It also helps that the Grandland Electric comes with lots of standard equipment, and more than the entry-level Enyaq that undercuts it. With the entry-level Design trim, the equipment list includes 19in alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, a heat pump, adaptive cruise control, LED headlights, an automatic anti-dazzle rear-view mirror and the other bits that we’ve already mentioned. 

Stepping up to mid-spec GS trim adds some niceties to the list, including the upgraded infotainment system, matrix LED headlights, heated seats and a heated steering wheel, while top-spec Ultimate gets all the bells and whistles. Indeed, that version gets 20in alloys, a premium Focal stereo system with 10-speakers, a power tailgate and a panoramic sunroof. 

With a maximum charging rate of 160kW, the Grandland’s charging times are pretty competitive in the class, with 20-80% on a fast charger taking around 26 minutes. That’s similar to the Enyaq and Model Y. The EV6 can charge at up to 350kW, meaning that, provided you can find a charger that’s fast enough, it’ll go from 10-80% in just 18 minutes. 

Vauxhall didn’t fare particularly well in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey, managing to claim 29th place out of the 31 included manufacturers. That’s below nearly all of its rivals other than MG (31st), with Peugeot (19th), Renault (9th) and Citroën (7th) doing better.

At least the three-year/60,000-mile standard warranty should give you some peace of mind. That’s pretty standard for the class, and not a patch on the seven years offered by Kia or up to 10 years from Toyota. 

The Grandland Electric is yet to be tested by the safety experts at Euro NCAP. That makes it hard to compare the Grandland directly with its rivals, but it does tick all the correct boxes when it comes to safety equipment. 

Every Grandland Electric comes with automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping assist and a driver drowsiness monitoring system. Upgrading to top Ultimate trim adds to the safety equipment list, getting lane-changing assist, rear-cross traffic alert and semi-autonomous lane changing.

I think the entry-level version looks like reasonable value, but the price quickly escalates and puts it right in the crosshairs of better rivals that offer more range. Namely, the Kia EV6 and Tesla Model Y Long Range Rear Wheel Drive.” – Will Nightingale, Reviews Editor