What price practicality? Vauxhall Combo Life Electric and Vivaro Life Electric go on sale
Prices and specs are announced for the Vauxhall Combo Life and Vivaro Life MPVs in EV form
Vauxhall has announced prices and specifications for two new-look electric MPVs, the Combo Life and Vivaro Life. These are the brand’s van-based people carriers, and they will start from £32,180 and £39,191 respectively.
The facelift brings updated looks to match the rest of the latest Vauxhall range but the fundamentals are the same as before: the Vauxhall Combo Life is the smaller of the two and seats up to seven people, while the Vivaro Life is much larger and seats up to nine. The Vivaro offers a six-seat configuration for a more spacious passenger layout, too.
That entry price in the Combo Life is for the Design version, which comes with a 10-inch touchscreen display with smartphone connectivity, while the top-spec Ultimate model comes with 16-inch alloys, sat-nav, a rear-view camera, dual-zone climate control and a heated steering wheel. This version costs from £34,695.
There’s also a Design XL model which is £33,080, and this is the seven-seater version that has a longer floor for more interior space. If you need a lot more space there’s also the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric, which is available in more than six different configurations.
The range starts with the Combi model, which has a three-row layout with nine seats. It’s aimed at shuttle services as it’s fairly sparse, but it does come with a 10-inch screen with DAB. There are two battery options: 50kWh and 75kWh, from £39,190 and £44,590 respectively.
XL Combi is larger but has the same kit (from £40,090), while Design and XL Design bring tinted windows, upgraded interior trim and more noise-absorbing materials to make it quieter inside. These models are £50,195 and £51,095 respectively and come in a three-row layout with eight seats, using the 75kWh battery only from here up.
Ultimate (£55,430) is available with eight seats or six seats with an optional (£750) seat pack that brings comfier chairs in the back, aimed at companies who carry fewer passengers but want to maximise their comfort. The XL version is roomier still and starts from £56,330.
Other options include adaptive cruise control (£600 on Design, £200 on Ultimate trim), an 11kW charger (£360), a panoramic sunroof (£700) and powered side and rear doors (£1,100).
Range has been boosted for the facelifted cars, with the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric receiving the largest increase – up 62 per cent to be exact, courtesy of a new 75kWh battery that gives the nine-seater EV a range of up to 217 miles. A 50kWh unit will remain available in the Vivaro Life Electric, offering closer to 140 miles of range on a charge but a lower price tag.
The Vauxhall Combo Life Electric gets the same 50kWh battery as it before, but developments to the drivetrain mean it can go 205 miles between charges – around 31 miles further than it could before. The front wheels of both MPVs are still driven by a single electric motor producing 134bhp and 260Nm of torque, and have a maximum charging speed of 100kW.
The cabin of both cars has also been redesigned, and now features a 10-inch touchscreen, plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity, and a wireless charging pad. Meanwhile, the new steering wheel design, as well as looking more modern, has a set of paddles behind it for toggling between the different strengths for the regenerative braking system. Buyers can also add a 10-inch digital driver’s display that provides navigation information and energy consumption data.
There are up to 18 driver assistance systems also offered on both models, including driver attention alert, traffic sign recognition and lane-keeping assist. A 180-degree reversing camera is standard-fit on both cars, too.
Practicality is unchanged, with the smaller Combo Life Electric available in two lengths – 4.41 and 4.76 metres – the latter adding a third row of seats so it can accommodate seven, or up to 4,000 litres worth of stuff when all but the driver’s seat is folded down.
Meanwhile, the Vivaro Life Electric measures either 4.98 or 5.33 metres long depending on the version, can seat nine people in the right configuration, or carry 4,900 litres of cargo if there’s just two people onboard. Handily, the Vivaro Life Electric only stands at 1.90 metres tall, so shouldn’t have any issues squeezing into underground car parks.
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