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By Jonathan Crouch

Peugeot's e-Boxer brings offers an EV drivetrain to suit a rather narrow business demographic. Jonathan Crouch reports.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 77

Peugeot's largest EV van is this one, the e-Boxer. Unlike smaller electric LCVs from the brand, this one wasn't developed (and isn't built) directly by the brand. Instead, as with its Citroen and Vauxhall badge-engineered counterparts, the e-Boxer was created in partnership with a Turkish-based third-party manufacturer. That shows in the limitations for both driving range and payload, but compared to the diesel version, cargo capacity isn't compromised and charging speeds are relatively fast by class standards.

Backgroundword count: 146

Peugeot's approach in creating this e-Boxer was either rather clever or very short-sighted. It depends on your point of view. The brand was certainly quick to market with this EV model. But the short-cut which facilitated that was due to a third party partnership with EV specialists BEDO, whose Turkish factory installs this model's EV drivetrain. That's very different to Peugeot's smaller electric vans, the e-Partner and the e-Expert, which come out of Peugeot's own factory as full-EVs. This model's close cousins, the Citroen e-Relay and the Vauxhall Movano Electric, take this short-cut Turkish route to market as well. But interestingly, the other shared Stellantis Group version of this design, Fiat's E-Ducato, doesn't, completely engineered and built by Fiat itself. So will this Peugeot be compromised by this approach? And is it still a creditable alternative in a class recently augmented by newer designs? Let's see.

Driving Experienceword count: 234

There are strange-looking push-button controls for the single-speed gearbox, but the starting procedure's straightforward. Unlike other EV vans, the surge of power you get at the wheel of this one is rather gradual. To be frank, the 122hp electric motor struggles a bit with a van this weighty and its torque figure (260Nm) is actually 50Nm less than the entry-level diesel. Hence the rather restricted payload. Like other Boxers, this one's front-driven. Peugeot no longer offers this model with the smaller 37kWh battery, so just a larger 75kWh power pack is on offer, which takes you 154 miles between charges, though that'll drop a bit if you've a full load out back. And it's significantly down on the 192 mile range you'd get from a comparable Fiat E-Ducato (which has a 79kWh battery). Unlike most EV vans, this e-Boxer can't offer you any drive modes, so there's no 'Eco' setting to maximise range - and no regenerative braking 'B' option for the single-speed gearbox, actioned by buttons on the dash ('Drive', 'Neutral' and 'Reverse'). On the plus side, this EV model's under-floor battery positioning results in a low centre of gravity, improving cornering and stability even when fully loaded. Top speed is just 68mph for the 3,500kg gross vehicle weight models (the only ones now available). The steering's quite an old-fashioned set-up that's quite heavy at low speeds, but lightens up at faster ones.

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