New Vauxhall Grandland Electric 2025 review: British brand’s most appealing EV yet

Verdict

Much like Kylie Jenner, the new Vauxhall Grandland is a huge glow-up compared with the one what we were used to before, even if when you scratch beneath the surface, all you find is cheap plastic. Reality stars aside, the reality here is the new electric Grandland is an attractive, spacious and well priced SUV that’s bound to sell well for the British brand. It may not be perfect or quite up with the best in class, but there’s certainly a reason why Vauxhall wanted its logo illuminated on the Grandland’s nose for all to see.

Vauxhall hasn’t had the best start when it comes to electrifying its line-up; while the Vauxhall Corsa Electric and its larger Astra Electric sibling weren’t necessarily bad cars, they have long looked overpriced and have suffered in terms of range compared with purpose-built EV competitors.

The new Vauxhall Grandland is the maker’s first model to be built on a purpose-built EV platform (which it shares with the new Peugeot E-3008) and on paper, things look rather promising – especially when it comes to the all-important price point.

Starting from just over £36,000, the electric Grandland is keenly priced when you consider its size and the cost of the competition. For example, the equivalent E-3008 costs from more than £45,000, while a Renault Scenic will set you back around an additional £1,500 over the Vauxhall.

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Such an attractive price tag means the Grandland is expected to hold its value – the latest data from CLD Vehicle Information Services suggests it’ll retain 62 per cent of its asking price over the typical three-year finance period – but all of that is no good if the kit list is stingy.

Thankfully, even the base Design car gets kit such as a 10-inch touchscreen and digital instrument cluster, adaptive cruise control, front-and-rear parking sensors and dual-zone climate control. 

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We recommend, however, spending an extra £2,000 and stepping up to the mid-spec GS. This gets adaptive LED headlights, a larger 16-inch touchscreen, a wireless phone charger, upgraded upholstery, diamond-cut alloys, a powered bootlid and an all-important reversing camera. Range-topping Ultimate models bring welcome, if not strictly necessary, luxuries such as a 360-degree camera system and a panoramic sunroof.

The Grandland, especially when equipped with the adaptive ‘Intellilux Pixel HD’ headlights and dressed in our test car’s Impact Copper paintwork, does have more kerb appeal than you’d expect for a model wearing the Griffin logo. We particularly appreciate the lack of stuck-on badging, with Vauxhall instead opting for integrating its logos into the front and rear lightbars, with the Grandland nameplate embossed into the rear bumper.

Equally as fetching is the Grandland’s interior, although this does come with a disappointing mix of high-quality and cheap-feeling materials. The doors, for example, are draped in tactile fabrics, although the buttons on the steering wheel feel dreadfully cheap, as does the rather unconvincing metal-effect trim on the dashboard.

Vauxhall’s latest infotainment system is fine, if not astounding. Sure the glossy 16-inch screen on our GS test car certainly does have its own wow-factor, and we like that Vauxhall has kept some physical switches for the climate controls (these can also be accessed via the screen), but it can be a tad slow to respond at times. The digital instrument cluster doesn’t show all that much info and can glitch between displays at times, too.

What we’re more impressed with is the vast amount of storage available. The Grandland is undeniably ‘grand’ in terms of its sheer proportions, but that means there’ll be plenty of room for families young and old, while the Vauxhall’s 550-litre boot is cavernous enough to swallow anything you throw at it. It’s just a shame there’s no frunk for the charging cables.

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As of the time of writing, there’s only one powertrain available in the UK (that is, if you discount the petrol mild-hybrid version) and this outputs 210bhp and is connected to a 73kWh battery pack which, according to Vauxhall, is good enough for 330 miles on a single charge. It’s a shame that it only charges at a maximum of 100kW, although a model with a bigger battery, a claimed 425-mile range and 165kW charging is on the way.

In our experience with the 73kWh model, we could only manage around 3.3 miles per kWh, which translates to a real-world range of 240 miles – 90 miles off Vauxhall’s estimate. One saving grace is that a heat pump is fitted as standard (something rivals such as Volkswagen make you pay extra for), so efficiency didn’t drop all that much, even on colder mornings.

Vauxhall knows its target customer base with the Grandland and has ignored the ‘Sports’ in ‘Sports Utility Vehicle’, instead focusing on making the car as easy and relaxing to drive as possible. The steering is feather-light and doesn’t get all that much heavier when the car is in ‘Sport’ mode. Despite the Vauxhall’s low centre of gravity, there’s also rather a lot of body lean when you throw it into a corner.

We found the suspension set-up of the mild-hybrid to be too unsettled, but we’re pleased to report that the electric Grandland’s gets a more sophisticated set of adaptive dampers that help refinement – particularly at higher speeds. That said, the suspension does still have somewhat of a firm edge to it, meaning you do feel the thud of a pothole more than we’d like.

Get out onto the motorway and the Grandland is a rather relaxing place to be. There’s no mindful ‘Sounds of Nature’ feature that you’d find in Hyundais and Kias, but we suspect most drivers will find the Vauxhall’s silent-yet-smooth electric motor and lack of wind noise to be sufficiently cosseting nonetheless.