Citroën, Peugeot and Vauxhall have adjusted the pricing of their electric MPVs to lessen the blow of removing more affordable combustion variants from order.
The brands, part of the automotive group Stellantis, removed all ICE versions of their MPVs from sale in most of Europe in an effort to accelerate the group’s move to all-electric power.
With the UK government’s £1500 grant for EVs applied, the ë-Berlingo now starts at £29,495, while the larger ë-Spacetourer is now priced from £30,295.
Vauxhall has slashed pricing by as much as £3000, so the Combo-e Life now starts from £29,610 with the PiVG. The price of the larger Vivaro-e Life begins from £30,295.
The decision to continue with only electric versions of these vehicles was announced in separate statements by Citroën, Peugeot and Opel/Vauxhall, which sell the technically idential Berlingo, Combo and Partner MPVs respectively.
The group's mid-sized MPVs – the Citroën Spacetourer, Peugeot Rifter and Vauxhall Vivaro Life – will also go all-electric in the designated markets.
Business customers outside the EU and those in Switzerland and the Balkans will still be able to buy combustion-powered models, Stellantis said, and Fiat, which sells its own variants of the small and mid-sized MPVs, hasn't issued a statement on the matter.
Citroën told Autocar that converter partners – who configure the Berlingo and Spacetourer for disabled users - will still be able to order the combustion versions.
“There is no alternative to electrification. In the future, Opel will gain even more traction with environmentally friendly innovations,” said Opel CEO Uwe Hochgeschurtz.
"From 2024, we will offer an electrified version of every Opel model, without exception. In other words, the successors to the Crossland and Insignia will also be electrified. Our statement is clear: from 2028, we will exclusively sell battery-electric vehicles in Europe.”
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Let's zoom out for a moment. PSA is EU marketleader in this segment. In 2021, the MPV version sold around 85.000 units. The LCV version (175.000 units) is very profitable. These MPV versions (Berlingo, Combo, Rifter) generate even higher margin. Artill's remark below " ... too soon" (this transition to E only) makes sense. However, it's fair to assume management went through all the necessary research before it came to this decision. With the restriction 'E-only' applies to Western Europe (exceptions such as disabled transportation stiil ICE) in place). Tesla's formidable 2021 UK campaign (#2 best selling car, after the Corsa) is testament to UK's Electrifiction acceptance. Hard to predict how many MPV sales PSA will loose due to the (perceived) limitations of a batterypack. 20%? Likely this loss will be recovered as the (general) EV transition gains momentum.
Seems too soon to do this, and i imagine it will cause sales to drop quickly, but i imagine its more to do with CO2 numbers than anything else. Due to their size these dont have very good numbers when you need to hit 95g/km average.
But PSA have always had an odd approach to these. the 1.2 petrol seems too small, the 1.6 would make more sense, and they limit you to 110 bhp when they have more powerful versions available. Its probably fine when they are driver only, but its a different story 7 up.
I was very interested in buying a nearly new petrol 7 seat Vauxhall Combo Life about a year ago because despite the high new price, you could get a year old one for around £14,000 which is a lot of car for the money.
But looking at nearly new ones now shows an average year-old price of around £20k thanks to the current global supply issues and soaring prices.
But before you resign yourself to paying well over £30k for the 7 seater electric versions of these cars with disappointing range (174 claimed miles) the top of the range 7 seat Dacia Jogger is only just over £17k new (it starts at £15,000) so Stellantis might have shot themselves in the foot with this course of action with their stable of MPVs.