2022 Peugeot e-Rifter review: Seven-seat EV offers practicality and value

MPVs as we know them are, essentially, dead.

From their heyday of the mid-90s when every brand had at least one boxy and vastly adaptable people mover, the segment has thinned down to virtually nothing.

Ford has stopped taking orders for the S-Max and Citroen has killed of the Grand C4 Spacetourer. The VW Touran and Sharan are no more and even Renault has abandoned the Scenic MPV, reimagining it as a hydrogen-powered SUV for the future.

Now buyers looking for the space, flexibility and practicality of traditional MPVs are having to turn to small van-based vehicles. Models like the Ford Tourneo Connect, Citroen e-Berlingo and the Peugeot e-Rifter.

As the name suggests, the e-Rifter is an electrically-powered version of the Rifter than was launched in 2018. It, like the related Berlingo, lost all combustion-engined options and now uses a 134bhp electric motor and a 50kWh battery.

That shift has had an impact on the e-Rifter’s practicality. When once you could have a diesel version that covered more than 600 miles on a tank, now the battery-powered version offers a claimed range of 172 miles. In warm conditions we saw close to that indicated by the trip computer but in the depths of winter I’d expect it to drop.

In fairness to Peugeot, 160-170 miles is still good enough for many people’s average use - I could cover my regular weekly trips with no more than a single overnight charge. But any plans for longer journeys to visit friends or take the family on holiday require far more planning, stops and dealing with the UK’s patchy public charging infrastructure. At least the e-Rifter has 100kW charging that will add 80% capacity in 30 minutes.

As with any car, individual circumstances will dictate how suitable it is for drivers, but the relatively small real-world range of the e-Rifter does feel like a limiting factor in what is otherwise a fantastically practical and family-friendly vehicle.