Vauxhall Grandland X Hybrid4 2020 first drive

Meet one half of Vauxhall’s two-step journey towards electrifying its entire passenger car line-up by 2024 - a journey set to make its other significant stride forward in just a few months with the arrival of the Corsa-e electric supermini.

The Grandland X Hybrid4 is the first ever plug-in hybrid to wear a Vauxhall badge, 2012’s Ampera being, strictly speaking, a range-extender electric car rather than a PHEV. With a 13.2kW battery, it can deliver as much as 35 miles of zero-emissions range - enough, says Vauxhall, for 80% of customers to do the majority of their driving on electricity alone. A 7.2kW wall box can then recharge it in under two hours, though only if you pay £500 for the option.

Of more interest to the average Autocar reader? That this is also the most powerful production Vauxhall on sale today, a pair of electric motors and PSA’s familiar 1.6-litre turbocharged four-pot petrol engine sending 296bhp to all four wheels. 0-60 takes a claimed 5.9 seconds, or enough to raise the eyebrow of the average hot hatchback owner.

In the UK, the all-wheel drive Hybrid4 starts with with the well-equipped SRi Nav trim, at £41,500. Our test car, a top-spec Ultimate Nav which adds niceties such as advanced park assist, premium audio and bespoke LED headlights, was an altogether more ambitious £46,650. That isn't too far removed from premium plug-ins from Audi, BMW and Volvo. Fleet customers may be more tempted by the Business Edition at roughly £37,000, but private buyers may want to wait for the less pricey, front-drive only variant set to follow later in the year, with an equally attractive benefit-in-kind tax rate.

On the road, the Hybrid4 delivers exactly the kind of split personality you’d expect given its performance and economy figures. It defaults to Electric mode, where it’s unsurprisingly quiet and relaxed, all the way up to motorway speeds. Here, the 111bhp motor built into the rear axle is doing much of the heavy lifting, with the front motor (a 108bhp unit) stepping in to assist when required.

Most driving can be done in Hybrid mode, which swaps between the combustion engine and electric motors on the fly and sends power through an eight-speed, wet clutch transmission, rather than the torque convertor automatic found on PSA’s petrol and diesel models. It’s a smooth system, transitioning between petrol and electric power without the noticeable lurch seen on some rival hybrids. The petrol engine stays largely isolated from the cabin when it does cut in, as revs build to noticeable but unobtrusive levels.