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The Vauxhall Grandland Plug-In Hybrid is a practical family-sized SUV with up to 39 miles of electric range at a sensible price.
Vauxhall became part of PSA in 2017, which then became the Stellantis Group in 2021, and since then Vauxhall has had access to the range of ‘electrified’ technology from Stellantis, including plug-in hybrid powertrains, which are now available in the Vauxhall Grandland.
The Vauxhall Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E has a 180PS 4-cylinder 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine together with a 110PS electric motor powered by a 13.2 kWh battery, an 8-speed automatic transmission, and front-wheel drive.
The design of the Grandland, both inside and out, reflects Vauxhall’s latest styling, ie. it’s simple and straightforward. The boot is 390-litres in size, which is smaller than the 514 litres of the petrol model – or there’s 1,652 litres of space with the rear seats folded.
Strangely, the Grandland has nothing on its exterior to tell you that it’s a plug-in hybrid – there’s just a very small badge saying ‘Hybrid’ on the door.
The Vauxhall Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E starts on electric power rather than petrol, which is good. There are three drive modes to choose from via a button on the left of the gear selector: Electric, Hybrid and Sport. There’s also a button with a small ‘e’ symbol under the touchscreen. Pressing this takes you to ‘e-Save’, which gives you the option of choosing to save battery range of 6 miles, 12 miles or maximum. All this is a bit hidden away and slightly over-complex. It’s easier to select Sport mode which also appears to hold the battery charge.
The Grandland’s petrol engine produces 180PS of power, the electric motor generates 110PS, and both combined deliver 225PS (along with 360 Nm of torque), so performance is decent on electric power and when using the petrol engine and electric motor.
However, unlike a pure EV, the Grandland changes gear when driving on electric power, and the transmission doesn’t have particularly quick responses, including when selecting a gear in the first place.
If you’re driving around town, electric power offers the better option, as driving on the petrol engine can be jerky, revvy and noisy.
Ride quality isn’t particularly comfortable over speed bumps, and the driver’s seat is quite high, resulting in it being hard to get an ideal driving position.
There are physical shortcut buttons under the touchscreen, plus separate buttons lower down for climate controls. And even better news is that there’s a physical button near the gear selector that’s easy to reach that switches off the lane departure warning system, and once you’ve switched it off, it stays off.
More ventilation from the middle of the dashboard in hot weather would be welcome.
The Vauxhall Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E has an official WLTP electric range of 39 miles, and an official combined WLTP fuel economy figure of 192mpg. After a week of mixed driving the real-world electric range was 23-28 miles, and the range on the petrol engine was displayed as 400 miles. Real-world fuel economy was 50.3mpg.
The Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E has a 3.7kW on-board charger.
The Vauxhall Grandland GS Line Plug-In Hybrid-E costs £33,820. The only option on our test car was metallic paint (£600), taking the price as tested to £34,420.
The Vauxhall Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E is a practical family SUV that can cover up to 39 miles on electric power and it’s decent to drive overall. It’s interesting to compare the Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E with the DS 4 Plug-In Hybrid – both are plug-in hybrids from Stellantis. The DS 4 is very stylish, inside and out, and costs £39,600. The Grandland may not be as exciting from a design point of view, but it has a more practical body shape, interior controls that are much clearer and easier to use, and it’s cheaper, at £33,820. The Vauxhall Grandland Plug-In Hybrid-E gets a Green Car Guide rating of 7/10.
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Paul Clarke, GreenCarGuide Editor
