Peugeot e-Rifter Review & Prices

If you’re in the market for a family MPV with an all-electric powertrain and loads of interior space, the Peugeot e-Rifter may be the car you’re after. While it might not be the most enticing-looking thing, it has all the attributes for those who need to lug things or people around regularly. As long as it’s within a reasonably short distance.

The e-Rifter is a bit like a lightweight Cesna aircraft. Sure it’s great at shorter distances and very good at that. But you’ll be making plenty of stops if you want to go on any long-distance trips.

It shares underpinnings with the Citroen e-Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo Life Electric, so if it looks familiar that could be why.

Unlike the VW ID Buzz, which is a style icon, the e-Rifter ranks among the more reserved offerings. It’s slab-sided and won’t be winning any design awards, but has a smart face that will be pleasing to some.

The cabin also isn’t the most exciting, but it has got either blue or orange sections to brighten up the otherwise black and grey finish. You get Peugeot’s funky iCockpit setup, while there are loads of storage bins and cubbies to hold your things, which makes for a very practical cabin. Rear space is also pretty good, while the boot is well-sized, although you’ll have to contend with a large tailgate, so make sure you don’t park too close to anything at the back.

It’s not the nicest-feeling cabin though, as durability is the keyword with the e-Rifter. Scratchy plastics cover a lot of the surfaces, while the compact steering wheel is only leather-covered in the GT version.

As with the cabin, the drive system is pretty underwhelming. You get a 50kWh battery pack paired to a front-mounted electric motor – and that’s on both the standard or long-wheelbase version. But on both, the official range of 172 miles isn’t likely to be enough for most families – especially if longer journeys are likely to be part of the mix.

On such lengthier runs, efficiency isn’t great. Being boxy in shape, the e-Rifter doesn’t cut through the air very well, so you get a lot of wind noise. You also run through your battery quickly, and we found you’re more likely to go not much further than 100 miles on motorway drives.

The e-Rifter is better suited to life off the motorway. With its lighter steering and large windows all-around, you have good credentials for town family runaround. The electric motor gets you up to speed quickly enough, while the option of regenerative braking to recoup charge helps negotiate slower moving traffic – although the car won’t come to a stop on its own due to the lack of a one-pedal drive mode.

Vans aren’t great to drive on twistier roads, and the e-Rifter conforms to that stereotype. It feels cumbersome as the electric motor is only just powerful enough, but it doesn’t lean too much in bends as the batteries are mounted in the floor to help with stability.

While it may have some major drawbacks, the Peugeot e-Rifter is better suited to people needing a large car for around town and who don’t need to venture too far from home with it. It also isn’t too pricey, especially against the Volkswagen ID. Buzz. Plus it has the option of seven seats – a rare asset among smaller EVs.

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While not the most expensive family car around, the e-Rifter is the most expensive out of the triplets from the same bloodline; the Citroen e-Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo Life Electric both start at a lower price.

Compared to other electric family cars, like the Skoda Enyaq, Mercedes EQB and Volkswagen ID Buzz, the e-Rifter is significantly cheaper though. But you will have to compromise on range and quality of finish.

There are also some options you can add to boost the overall appeal. All cost less than £1,000 each, but the cheaper credentials go out of the window if you start ticking away at the options list, at which point cars like the Skoda Enyaq could come into play.

While the steering weight is light, making for easy progress around town, the rest of the e-Rifter experience is pretty underwhelming

In town

This is where the e-Rifter makes a lot of sense. Possibly not in its long wheelbase layout as much, but it manages to be simple to manoeuvre around town thanks to feather-light steering and large windows. The 10.8-metre turning circle is rather handy too, meaning that even in the longer XL model, you have decent manoeuvrability, and the big glass areas make for good visibility.

With the instant performance offered by the electric motor, you can get away from junctions pretty swiftly. It runs out of puff quite soon though. That instant punch makes getting away from traffic lights easy, but it’s definitely suited for town driving.

On the motorway

As the e-Rifter isn’t too dissimilar in shape to a brick, efficiency at high speed isn’t that great. Built to be a petrol/diesel-powered MPV originally, the electric power isn’t that punchy once you get out of town and at motorway speeds you end up burning through the battery pretty quickly.

Combine that with driving in winter and you’re likely to see the range at less than 100 miles, which is quite anxiety-inducing on a longer journey. That means you’re averaging around 2.0 miles per kWh – nowhere near good enough for long-range driving.

Even when driving calmly and in milder weather, you’re unlikely to go more than 120 miles between charges, so be prepared for lots of time sitting at charging stations if you regularly stray far from home.

On a twisty road

The e-Rifter is by no means a sporty car. The lighter steering that’s great in town makes the Peugeot feel a bit out of its depth when you’re hustling it on a twistier road. But that’s just not what this car is built for.

You can engage Sport mode to stiffen up the steering and suspension slightly, but you’re better off taking your time and leaving it in normal mode. That way, you can be more comfortable doing it.

You can hear the bumps rattle through the cabin when you go over them, while there’s plenty of wind and tyre noise when you get up to higher speeds. It definitely isn’t the most relaxing car to drive on a longer run.

There’s lots of space throughout for passengers and storage, but just remember that the tailgate is huge so needs a decent space to open

Where the e-Rifter majors is in space for both passengers and storage. There are some let downs in the front, with the door bins not being the largest, but you get space back with a huge cavern in the centre console. That does mean your cupholders are in an odd place – you get one to the right of the steering wheel, and the other in front of the passenger.

There’s an additional glovebox on the top of the dashboard, while you get a full-width shelf above the windscreen for further storage.

You sit quite high for a decent view out and there is a decent level of adjustment, but some will find the small steering wheel that’s part of Peugeot’s iCockpit setup a little strange. You do get reach and angle adjustment for that though so you can find a comfortable seating position.

Space in the back seats

Rear space is rather good. With its van-based origins, the e-Rifter has loads of head and legroom, and with no transmission tunnel, three people will be able to sit across the back row comfortably.

Getting in there is also pretty simple. You get sliding rear doors, which means getting in and out in tighter parking spaces can be very easy. Just make sure that they’re fully open, as they can close quite quickly and surprisingly if not.

You get folding tray tables on the back of the front seats, which are a little flimsy, while the door bins aren’t too big either.

You can add two further seats in the rear to help move more people around, and these are removable to make for more storage space instead. That does mean finding a place to put them though.

Boot space

Being van-shaped, the e-Rifter has decent storage available. In the standard form, you get 1,355 litres up to the roof, while going for the Long version tots up at 1,900 litres with the rearmost seats removed.

Folding the rearmost seats (and taking out the two rear seats in the seven-seater) down takes that up to 3,000 litres for the standard version, while the long wheelbase option gets 3,500 litres to work with.

It’s a very square space that helps with taking plenty of things around easily, while the lip is quite low – making loading a lot easier. But one annoyance is the liftgate boot opening. That helps loading things, but in tighter spaces that can be quite impractical.

Alternatives like the Volkswagen ID. Buzz (1,100 litres) and Mercedes EQV (1,410 litres) do offer more space, but both are considerably more expensive. The Citroen e-Berlingo and Vauxhall Combo Life Electric both offer the same space as they are built on the same underpinnngs.

There’s some funky shapes across the dashboard with the iCockpit layout, but the materials used aren’t the finest

With the iCockpit concept, you get a pretty cool layout for a family MPV. You get a funky leather steering wheel – albeit on the small side – and well-shaped instrument panel that holds the driver’s display that’s 10.0-inch on the top-spec car. In the entry Allure model, you get analogue dials and a smaller screen.

Depending on which trim you go for, you can have either a brown (GT) or blue (Allure) finish to pair with the black plastic you get throughout most of the interior. It’s not the nicest-feeling material with it being quite scratchy, while the upholstery on the seats is nice enough, but definitely made for a hard-wearing life.

Durable hard plastics can be found on a lot of other surfaces, like the door bins and around the centre console.

You get an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system that’s mounted on the dashboard surrounded by piano black plastic, which can easily attract grubby fingerprints. The system itself isn’t the best, being laggy and a little difficult to navigate. You can connect via either Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which are both definitely more user-friendly.

You can choose to add 11kW AC charging instead of the standard 7kW setup for a faster home charge, as well as an upgraded alarm system. You can also add keyless entry, a pack with rear parking sensors and a reversing camera, and GT versions will get blind spot detection, front parking sensors and park assist.

All versions of the e-Rifter get a 50kWh battery pack, which is good for 172 miles on a full charge. That goes for both the standard and Long version.

On a DC charger, you can go up to 100kW in terms of charging speed, while AC charging is 7kW as standard. You can choose to upgrade that to 11kW. On fast charging you can go from 10-80% in 26 minutes, while doing a full charge on AC takes seven and a half hours.

To get the max range from the battery, you need to average 3.4mi/kWh. But you won’t get anywhere near that figure if you’re spending much time on faster toads with higher speeds.

As it costs less than £40,000, you won’t have to pay VED at all. But from April 2024, electric cars will need to be paying tax.

You get a decent amount of safety kit as standard. There’s lane keep assist, active safety braking, traffic sign recognition, speed limit recognition, cruise control and driver attention monitoring. You can only add blind spot monitoring, front parking sensors and park assist to the top GT models.

As mentioned before you can add an improved alarm system, approved by Thatcham, while you get airbags throughout, ISOFIX points for child seats and disc brakes on both the front and rear axle.

Peugeots have had a reputation of poor reliability, but in recent years that has been improving. Previous versions of the standard Rifter have had some recalls for issues with the steering rack and underbody protection, but the e-Rifter has currently been unscathed.

All Peugeot models come with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty, while the e-Rifter – being an EV – gets an eight-year warranty for the battery pack. You can choose to purchase an extended warranty from Peugeot, as long as the car is less than 10 years old and has done under 100,000 miles.