Vauxhall Grandland Electric review

It’s inside the car that you'll find the biggest improvement over the previous generation Grandland. The quality is a big step up: there are plenty of posh feeling materials about, it’s ergonomically pleasing and easy to get used to.

Which all means that it feels a good option to anyone looking to make the transition to electric power. There’s nothing too radical in here – while some manufacturers have taken a futuristic approach to electric, this feels more traditional.

What’s the tech like?

Directly in front of you sits a 10in digital dash. The display is clean and easy to read enough, but it’s lacking in customisation. Higher trim models get a head-up display, which is useful to keep your eyes on the road, but similarly lacks configurability.

The dashboard’s ‘Pure Mode’ is an interesting touch – it pares down the infotainment and dash displays at night when you need a little less distraction. We kept forgetting it was activated, though, and got annoyed at the displays changing – so in that sense it's more distracting than intended…

And the infotainment?

In the middle of the car sits another 10in screen, which grows to a 16in display in the fancier versions. The latter looks impressively sharp and it's very customisable too, at least when you’re using the native nav. Less so when using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, because they don’t expand to the full display and leave pointless gaps on the sides. Oh dear.

A plus point in here is the presence of physical climate controls, operated via a separate panel below the main touchscreen. Two niggles on the car we drove, though. First, we couldn’t get the heated windscreen to switch on – Vauxhall admits this currently doesn't work above zero degrees (!) but that a fix is being hastily readied. Also, the heated seats (activated via the touchscreen display) were the wrong way round: the driver’s seat only came on when the left seat was switched on and vice versa. Not great, although Vauxhall claims an over-the-air update issued late in 2024 should've solved this.

How’s the practicality?

There’s decent space up front in the Electric, with comfortable front seats and a host of little storage spaces about the cabin including an extra shelf under the centre stack and the curious ‘Pixel Box’ in GS and Ultimate trims that has a little opaque window looking onto the wireless charging pad.

Anyone in the back should be comfortable, though there’s limited space under the front seats for your toes. Still, we found it better here than in the Peugeot e-3008, and you should fit three abreast too.

Bootspace measures 550 litres in both the petrol and electric variant – that’s 30 litres bigger than the e-3008, and it trumps most of its other closest rivals too. Additionally the rear seats offer a 40/20/40 fold split, and fully down you’re looking at 1,645 litres. An extra 36 litres of storage space is dotted around the cabin.

There’s no frunk though and the false floor in the boot (that conceals an actually quite handy compartment for the charge cables) is a fuss to deal with one handed. You have been warned.