Vauxhall Grandland Electric review

Vauxhall initially started off selling the Grandland Electric at around £41k, but knocked the price down not long after the car went on sale, which means it currently starts at £37,345 (grab ‘em while they’re hot) – barely £2.6k more than the petrol version of the car.

There are three trims available – Design, GS and Ultimate. The mid-range GS trim costs £38,495 and the top-spec Ultimate is £40,495. This means that the car comes in a chunk cheaper than its closest rival, the Peugeot e-3008.

If you went for the mid-range GS car on Vauxhall's PCP scheme you'd be looking at around £428 a month over three years/30,000 miles with a 10 per cent deposit down.

What are the trims like?

Base-spec Design gets you 19in alloys, LED lights front and rear, 10in digital dash and touchscreen infotainment with wireless Apple/Android, front and rear parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, electric folding mirrors and adaptive cruise control.

GS trim gets a fancier look thanks to diamond-cut alloys, a light up grille and matrix headlights, exterior styling tweaks and rear tinted windows. Inside you get a heated steering wheel and heated front seats, ambient lighting, larger 16-inch infotainment with satnav, wireless phone charging and a rearview camera.

Finally, range-topping Ultimate spec gets you 20-inch alloys, a heated windscreen, electric tailgate, panoramic glass roof, head-up display, a juicier sound system and 360-degree parking cameras.

Which one should I go for?

The twinkly front end graphics with the light-up grille and the welcome show from the matrix headlights are deeply naff, but we’d still go for the mid-range GS spec car on the heated steering wheel and front seats alone.

All Grandland Electrics come with a heat pump as standard, which is a nice touch, but Vauxhall probably had no choice when they saw how inefficient the car is in the cold.