Living with a Citroen E-Berlingo: Comfy and spacious, but there’s a problem

This is our Citroen E-Berlingo – an electric MPV which we’ve been living with for the last few months to see if there’s still a place for van-based family cars in this modern world of designer SUVs.

It’s already proven itself as an insanely spacious and practical family car, and you can read more about the interior in the second report. For now though, we’re going to talk about the way this car drives.

And on the whole, we actually enjoy spending time behind the wheel of our E-Berlingo. The tall, van-like driving position gives you a lofty view of the road ahead, and the massive windows mean there’s great all-round visibility.

It’s also pretty comfy over bumps. This car lives primarily on the potholed streets of North West London, but it does a good job of ironing out most of the imperfections. Only really big bumps send a thud through the cabin.

We have noticed that the brake pedal is a bit like an on-off switch, so it jerks to a stop when you just brush the pedal which makes it tricky to drive smoothly. Beyond this though, it’s a pretty relaxing car to drive. It’s even surprisingly well-behaved on the motorway, with only a little bit of wind noise disturbing the peace.

However, there has been one problem with this electric MPV which makes it slightly less relaxing, and that’s the range. Citroen says it should do up to 220 miles on a charge, however ever our time with the car it’s averaged between 3.3 and 3.5 miles per kWh. That equates to a real world range of around 175 to 180 miles.

Day-to-day, this is usually plenty. However, sometimes we do need to use this car to go further afield. Driving at motorway speed saps the battery even more, and we have found ourselves running with the air conditioning off before to try and eke out the range.

This comes as no real surprise in a vehicle with the same aerodynamic properties as a brick, so before considering the E-Berlingo you may want to have a think about how you’ll be using it.

As a daily car for commuting and ferrying the family around, the E-Berlingo is great. It’s comfy, easy to drive and offers cavernous practicality. It just isn’t ideal as a car for cross-country road trips, but if you do need to go further then you could also consider the petrol or diesel-powered Berlingo.

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Living with a Citroen E-Berlingo report 2: interior and practicality

This is our Citroen E-Berlingo, a big electric people carrier which we’ll be living with for a few months. We’re about four weeks into our time with the car now, and it’s been really refreshing having something this practical on the fleet.

*Prices correct at the time of writing
You can check out the full spec of our E-Berlingo in the first report, but here we’re going to take a closer look at the interior.

1. It’s insanely spacious

You can forget SUVs like the Skoda Enyaq and Tesla Model Y, if all you want from your EV is maximum interior space then the E-Berlingo is really hard to beat. Its van-like proportions may not be that stylish from the outside, but you certainly feel the benefit inside.

The boot is a whopping 1,355 litres in capacity, and the low load lip makes it really easy to just load. Pushchairs, bicycles, the kitchen sink, just chuck ‘em in the back and off you go. The rear seats are also nice and roomy, but there is one issue…

2. Child seat woes

Fitting a child seat is made difficult by one really annoying design flaw. The ISOFIX anchors are much lower down than the actual opening in the seat, so finding the right angle is a faff. At least you don’t have to contend with a narrow door opening or a low roof to smack your head on while you figure it out.

3. Driver comfort

Being at the helm of this daily bus is actually quite pleasant. The seats are comfy, you get a nice, upright driving position and the flip-down armrest is a really nice touch. The excellent all-round visibility also makes it easy to manoeuvre in tight spaces despite being quite a large car.

4. Keeping things tidy

Because the Citroen E-Berlingo is based on a van, you get loads of cubby holes inside to keep your bits and bobs out of the way. There are loads of cupholders, two gloveboxes, a storage box above the steering wheel and massive door bins.

5. Simple is sometimes better

The Citroen E-Berlingo has physical climate controls – unlike our Peugeot 5008 which has them buried in a fiddly touchscreen menu. They’re easy to use on the move, however we have found that the way they’re positioned can mean some of the buttons are blocked by the steering wheel, leading you to have to crane around it to see what you’re jabbing at.

First report: an introduction to our new electric MPV

The Citroen E-Berlingo has physical climate controls – unlike our Peugeot 5008 which has them buried in a fiddly touchscreen menu. They’re easy to use on the move, however we have found that the way they’re positioned can mean some of the buttons are blocked by the steering wheel, leading you to have to crane around it to see what you’re jabbing at.

If you rewind to the mid-2000s, van-based MPVs were popular among family buyers for their vastly practical cabins. In recent years however they’ve died off in favour of more stylish SUVs, but should they be consigned to the history books, or is there still a case for these hugely practical cars in 2025?

To find out, we’ve been given the keys to the new Citroen E-Berlingo for six months to find out what it’s like to live with. We’ll put it through its paces on the school run, on family holidays and for zipping around town.

So let’s take a closer look at our car. It’s the top-spec Max model, which means it gets a couple of cool styling upgrades. You get alloy wheels for starters, as opposed to the steel wheels which come on the basic car. There’s also some extra cladding and orange accents.

There’s more orange inside as well, specifically on the cloth seats. The Max also gets a heated leather steering wheel, a 10.0-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as Citroen’s Advanced Comfort Seats, which we’ll put to the test on long journeys.

The Citroen Berlingo is available with petrol, diesel and electric power, and we’ve gone for the latter. It’s powered by a 136hp electric motor which drives the front wheels, and the 52kWh should deliver a claimed 220 miles of range. Time will tell how close we can get to this.

Options fitted to this car include Citroen Connect Navigation which gets you live traffic updates at a cost of £400 and the Sirkka Green metallic paint, a £575 colour. We’ve also got the upgraded 11kW AC charger for an extra £300. You only get a 7.4kW charger as standard, which will take seven and a half hours to go from 0-100%. The 11kW charger cuts this down to around five and a half hours.

All-in this Citroen E-Berlingo will set you back £34,925 with options. There aren’t many cars which offer this much space for the money. The Skoda Enyaq starts from just under £37,000, and at the time of writing you can get a Vauxhall Grandland Electric for £33,600 through Carwow.

But is the Citroen E-Berlingo better suited to family life? Keep an eye on this page for updates on what it’s like to live with.

Car change? Carwow!

Looking for a new set of wheels? With Carwow you can sell your car quickly and for a fair price – as well as find great offers on your next one. Whether you’re looking to buy a car brand new, are after something used or you want to explore car leasing options, Carwow is your one stop shop for new car deals.

Click here to follow us on WhatsApp, where you can keep up-to-date with all the latest news, reviews, advice guides and videos.