Citroen e-Berlingo review

The e-Berlingo range is fairly compact – there are two trims, Plus and Max, with the former available in either the M or XL sizes, and the latter M only. 

Plus M starts at £30,990 and going for the larger seven-seater option adds £900, while Max M starts from £33,505. All very simple, no? 

If you’re looking at leasing you can expect to pay around £260 a month for the Plus and £305 a month for the Max on a four-year agreement with a £5k down payment and 10,000 mileage allowance, through Citroen’s own finance scheme.

What are the options like? 

The basic spec Plus trim feels slightly barebones: you get 16-inch steel wheels, LED headlights and daytime running lights, a 10-inch digital instrument cluster, manual aircon and rear parking sensors but not a lot else.

One up Max modes get 17-inch alloys, roof bars, heated steering wheel, 10-inch infotainment display with smartphone mirroring, proper climate control, Advanced Comfort Seats (for the first time on the Berlingo), three rear independent sliding and folding seats, tray tables, the useful little storage bin in the top of the dashboard, a reversing camera, numerous active safety gizmos… the list goes on.

One particularly nice touch on the Max model is the opening rear windscreen, which comes with a beefy parcel shelf that can lowered down to halfway up the boot so you can pop things in via the back window. This is a useful feature because the rear boot hatch is so huge. If you’re limited on parking space then this is definitely worth checking out before you commit to the Berlingo’s barn door of a backside.

Oh, and anything but white paint is a £575 option whatever spec you go for.

Any issues? 

The e-Berlingo isn’t available with heated windscreen or seats, which is something of an oversight for an electric car: using the aircon to heat the cabin in winter uses up a lot of electricity. At least the steering wheel and mirrors warm up (in Max trim anyway, all the more reason we’d choose that one).

If you’ve got home charging then you can use the Citroen app to preheat the cabin remotely, which is a useful feature common to most EVs these days.