Citroen e-Berlingo MPV Review 2024

Remember MPVs? For years they were the default choice for those who needed the flexibility to haul large amounts of people and kit in a car-sized package. Less practical SUVs came to dominate the market, reducing the number of MPVs available. Most of those which remain are now van-based presenting more benefits than drawbacks as demonstrated here — find out more with our full Citroen e-Berlingo review.

Although it stuck with the conventional MPV longer than most of its rivals, the Citroen C4 SpaceTourer (formerly the C4 Picasso) is history, out-lived by the van-derived e-Berlingo. For a number of reasons, this is a good thing.

Okay, so its bodywork betrays its commercial vehicle origins being purposely perpendicular and providing masses of interior space, yet beneath are underpinnings shared with several comfortable cars, including the Citroen C5 Aircross SUV.

As Citroen is part of the enormous Stellantis car manufacturing group the e-Berlingo is also available with a range of other brand’s badges, albeit with different front-end styling and interior trimmings. Yes, the Peugeot E-Rifter and Vauxhall Combo Life Electric are near facsimiles of the e-Berlingo, as is the recently-launched-in-the-UK Toyota Proace City Verso Electric.

Other rivals are relatively few in number when it comes to medium-sized van-derived five- and seven-seaters — there are no EV versions of the Volkswagen Caddy but a plug-in hybrid version will soon be available, a situation repeated with its rebadged cousin, the Ford Tourneo Connect.

If you’re unwilling to go the van-based MPV route then your options are restricted to the ageing but conventional Volkswagen Touran or as a more novel alternative as a high-roofed seven-seater estate, the Dacia Jogger, although neither is sold in fully electric form.

Choose a five-seater version and the Citroen e-Berlingo M — for Medium — is more handily sized for urban driving and multi-storey car parks than its seven-seater sibling, the Citroen e-Berlingo XL.

Power for the electric e-Berlingo comes from a 136PS electric motor supplied with energy from a 52kWh battery pack housed under the floor with no loss of interior space. It’s not an enormous battery, providing a claimed WLTP range of 206-212 miles depending on the version.

Previously, car versions of the Citroen Berlingo were available with petrol and diesel engines. While the current brochure indicates that this is still the case, be warned: the 110PS Puretech petrol and BlueHDi 130 diesel (confusingly with 131PS) have metal mesh bulkhead behind the seats, which reduces their flexibility as well as legally requires them to be registered as vans.

Sticking with the electric Citroen e-Berlingo the number of choices is limited. Plus specification is available on both the M and XL bodies, while the flashier Max trim is limited to solely the M version.

Thanks to its 2024 facelift to bring the e-Berlingo inline with Citroen’s new face, it manages to look relatively modern. With snazzier alloy wheels and flashes of colour on the exterior plastic mouldings, Max versions do a better job of softening those van-ish lines and help to give it a bit more personality.

More importantly it’s on the inside where the Citroen e-Berlingo really starts to deliver. While the more humble Plus models present plenty of dark grey plastics, making it feel feel quite basic, Max adds some colour to the seat trims and dash top which helps a little.

It matters little though because the amount of space on offer inside is genuinely impressive. As well as plenty of leg and elbow room the high roof means more headroom than you could possibly need and the amount of space over your head helps to make the cabin feel light and airy.

Driving the Citroen e-Berlingo is far from taxing with seamless acceleration and low noise levels. It also handles more than well enough — although far from exciting and with some body roll, it feels a little more like a car than a van. Good news for you and your ensemble of passengers.

Thankfully the Citroen e-Berlingo has been tuned to favour ride quality over handling and while that makes it less fun to drive it also means it is a surprisingly comfortable place to be.

Its suspension that’s soft but not floaty means the majority of bumps are handled with ease and it is rarely caught out by undulating roads. Being designed to carry heavy loads means it drives better when loaded up rather than empty, but even without lots of people and luggage the ride is decently composed.

A little less impressive is the steering. Although not vague there is little sense of what is going on with the front wheels and on occasion you may find yourself guessing how much steering to input rather than intuitively guiding it through a bend. The steering is light to such a degree that the setting to reduce the effort needed even further when parking hardly feels necessary.

Powering the front wheels of the Citroen e-Berlingo is an electric motor coupled with a 1-speed automatic transmission operated by a toggle switch. Producing 136PS and 270Nm of torque it’s not going to be rip-snortingly brisk so a 9.9-second 0-62mph time is a pleasant surprise. Top speed is 82mph.

The smooth, hushed progress of the electrical drive system is a real plus point although it doesn’t feel as refined overall as a conventional electric car. You can also vary the amount of energy recovery under braking easily with paddles behind the steering wheel, saving you from having to fiddle around with more complicated menu systems.

For brand new Citroen Berlingos, choosing a petrol or diesel engine means that legally the vehicle will be classified as a van due to the metal bulkhead behind the seats.

With three-cylinders and a 1.2-litre capacity the Puretech 110 is fitted with a six-speed manual gearbox. It produces 110PS and 205Nm of torque, sufficient for a 107mph top speed and an 11.2-second 0-62mph time.

There’s plenty of pulling power through to the middle of the rev range and although there’s not much point in making it work harder than this, it remains impressively refined if you do.

An eight-speed automatic transmission is fitted to the four-cylinder 1.5-litre BlueHDi 130 diesel and makes for a more appealing combination than the petrol alternative. Producing 131PS and 300Nm of torque it will reach 114mph but takes slightly longer to dash from 0-62mph with a time of 11.7 seconds.

Euro NCAP tested the pre-facelifted version of the petrol and diesel Citroen Berlingo in 2018, awarding it four stars out of five. It scored an impressive 91% for adult occupant protection and 81% for child occupant protection but middling scores of 58% for pedestrian mitigation and 68% for safety assist brought the overall score down.

It’s unlikely to be retested following the 2024 makeover but nevertheless the latest e-Berlingos come with enhanced safety kits as standard including Active Lane-Keeping Assist, Active Safety Brake, Speed Limited Recognition and Recommendation, Intelligent Beam headlights, Driver Attention Alert, cruise control and speed limiter.

A worthwhile option bundle is the Drive Pack but this is only available in conjunction with the range-topping Max specification. It includes Integrated Highway Assist, adaptive cruise control, Positioning Assist, blind-spot detection and parking sensors for both the front and sides of the car.

Towing is not a forte of the Citroen e-Berlingo with a maximum braked trailer capacity of just 750kg — that’s only with the shorter M bodywork as the longer XL versions have no towing rating at all.

Choose one of the combustion-engined Citroen Berlingos that requires registering as a commercial vehicle and the situations a little rosier — the Puretech petrol engine can tow up to 900kg while the BlueHDi diesel has a capacity of up to 1000kg.

Where the Citroen e-Berlingo compromises in style and driver engagement it pays off handsomely when it comes to practicality. Choose the five-seat M version and all passengers get all the space they could reasonably need with enough room to sit three top hat-wearing adults across the second row without banging elbows.

The seven-seat XL version will take two adults on the third row too, although legroom at the back isn’t quite as generous.

What is more, choose the higher spec Max trim or the Style Pack on Plus versions and you get individual second row seats which can be folded or removed altogether, so you can mix passengers and luggage to suit your needs, or even whip them out altogether for a genuine van-like space.

Not only that, the rear windscreen also opens independently, handy in tight spaces where there’s insufficient room to elevate the enormous tailgate.

Max trim also gets you the option of the Modutop Roof, combing a panoramic glazed roof with an aircraft-like overhead storage locker at the back and a translucent storage shelf along the roof. Additionally, the front passenger seat can be folded flat to accommodate even longer loads.

The amount of boot space within the Citroen e-Berlingo is extraordinary. The five-seater M version has 775 litres of space available in five-seater up to the height of the parcel shelf and 4414 litres when the back row’s removed and it’s loaded to the roof.

With all seven of the e-Berlingo XL’s seats in place there’s up to 322 litres of boot space right at the back. Folding the third row to the sides of the boot increases the capacity to 1050 litres, while removing all of the back seats liberates 5172 litres, which is positively, erm, van-like.

As mentioned, new petrol- and diesel-engined Citroen Berlingos have a mesh bulkhead behind the seats which means legally they’re classed as vans, limiting the maximum space available on these M-bodied models to 1255 litres when loaded to the roof.

The Citroen e-Berlingo’s van-origins means you get hardwearing rather than fancy-looking materials inside but if you can live with the basic colour scheme and lack of soft-touch surfaces it’s clear to see that it is well put-together.

Any cabin that can survive hard use by couriers, builders and plumbers is likely to manage children without breaking sweat. Choosing the Max trim brings a bit more colour to the cabin too which helps to break up the big areas of dark plastics, as well as a bit more flash to the exterior, which makes it the obvious choice of the two.

Both Plus and Max trims get the same infotainment system — a 10-inch touchscreen with voice recognition, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, DAB radio and a USB-C connector for both charging and data. It’s not the most advanced system, nor the newest, but it works reasonably well without too much lag. 

It’s also not overloaded with additional functions thanks to physical heating and ventilation controls, although the number of icons can be difficult to get used to at first.

It sits in a good position on top of the dash without impacting your view out and three physical buttons also make it easy to control the volume and get to main menu screens without too much screen prodding.

Pricing for the Citroen e-Berlingo is competitive, especially if you consider the amount of space available for the money. The five-seater M body in Plus specification costs £31,135, with the seven-seater XL version just £900 more.

The more generously appointed Max specification weighs in at £32,695 and is only available in five-seater M form.

By way of comparison, the near identical Vauxhall Combo Electric ranges from £32,180 to £35,595 and the Peugeot E-Rifter between £32,320 and £36,015. Toyota’s Proace City Verso Electric’s prices are spread across a broader scale ranging from £31,794 to £36,409.

In petrol-electric plug-in hybrid form, the Ford Tourneo Connect starts at £37,050 with prices for the Volkswagen Caddy equivalent yet to be revealed, although the aged VW Touran MPV is priced from £38,865. Far more reasonably, the least expensive self-charging Dacia Jogger Hybrid can be had from £22,995. 

The van-registered combustion-engined Berlingo Ms are considerably cheaper still with the Plus Puretech 110 priced at £23,250. This rises to £26,950 for the Plus BlueHDi 130 diesel and £29,465 for that same engine in Max specification.

As for used prices, the earliest 2018 examples are available from around £8,000 but if you want the electric version expect to pay around £16,000 and up, as there are fewer examples available.

More good news for the Citroen e-Berlingo is that running costs should be impressively low, especially if you can charge at home. Those van origins also mean that insurance costs should be relatively low, with repair costs largely on a par with the commercial version. 

In terms of energy efficiency, Citroen quotes a blanket range across all three e-Berlingo versions of between 2.9-3.6mi/kWh.

Choose one of the van-status combustion-engined Citroen Berlingos and the Puretech 110 has a WLTP Combined cycle rating of 37.1-44.7mpg, rising to 43.4-51.9mpg for the BlueHDi 130 diesel.

Electric range and recharging

On the WLTP Combined cycle Citroen quotes the five-seater M version of the e-Berlingo at 212 miles in Plus trim 211 miles for the Max. This is reduced to 206 miles for the Plus-only XL version. That means a real world range of under 200 miles, particularly if it is loaded up, but for many buyers this should be sufficient for regular use.

Using a 100kW rapid charger should see a 0-80% recharge in just 30 minutes while a more conventional domestic wallbox with a 7kW flow rate requires 6 hours 43 minutes for a 0-100% recharge — easily done overnight to take advantage of a low-rate tariff.

The e-Berlingo also comes with a guarantee that the battery pack will retain 70% of its range for eight years or 100,000 miles so performance should remain more than sufficient for several years of use.

Opt for the electric Citroen e-Berlingo and you have a choice of two trim levels — Plus and Max, although the latter is only available with the shorter five-seater M body.

Choose a Citroen e-Berlingo Plus and your people carrier will be equipped with 16-inch steel wheels and plastic trims, electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors, gloss exterior black door handles, rear parking sensors plus LED headlights and day-running lights.

Inside you’ll find a 10-inch instrument display screen, a 10-inch HD infotainment touchscreen, DAB digital radio, smartphone integration with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, electric front windows, air conditioning, height and lumbar adjustment for the driver’s seat, tray tables on the front seatbacks, a 60:40 split-folding second row bench and a rigid two-height parcel shelf on M versions or a retractable alternative on XL models.

Go for the fancier Citroen e-Berlingo Max for 17-inch Topaz alloy wheels, electrically folding door mirrors, body-coloured door handles and rear door runners, gloss black roof rails, silver-grey front and rear faux skid plates, bright Red Andre flashes on the front bumper and side mouldings and separately opening rear windscreen.

Once aboard you’ll appreciate the electric rear windows, dual-zone climate control, 180-degree reversing camera, Advance Comfort front seats, a heated leather steering wheel and three-independently adjustable second row seats.

For reference, the combustion-engined Citroen Berlingo that requires registration as a van mirrors the e-Berlingo’s specifications. It’s only available in five-seater M length, with Plus specification available with petrol and diesel engines, Max solely with the latter.