e-C3 Aircross Van

Citroen have come up with a van conversion that’s cleverly tax efficient. Step forward the e-C3 Aircross van.

Tell me more

It’s basically the e-C3 Aircross car kitted out in basic Plus trim, with the rear seats removed. The rear windows have been blacked out with stick on vinyl, the floors been strengthened with board, a thin load cover has been added & the floor is rigid & carpeted.

Is it practical ?

Well it comes with a 300kg payload & a 730 litre load volume. Remove the load floor & this goes up to 1,220 litres & the load area is 1.2 metres long by 1 metre wide at floor level. A fixed bulkhead is fitted as standard & there are plenty of cubby’s too store your bits & bobs.

Battery & range

It’s fitted with a 44kWh battery with a claimed 188 mile range ( more of that later.)

Charging

AC charging is standard at 7.2kW although for an extra £300 you can upgrade to 11kW. On a DC rapid charger it will charge at 100kW, so a 20 to 80% top-up will take less than half an hour. For whatever reason when we drove 350 miles in the van & when we connected to fast charger the van would not charge faster than at 30kW & sometimes only at 20kW. At home things were fine with a 5 hour nigh time plug-0in adding 37kW of range for just £3.30.

Drivetrain & regeneration

The e-C3 Aircross is powered by a front-wheel drive single electric motor producing 83kW (113 ps) for both the Standard & Extended-range versions. The gear selector features a C option not the usual B for regeneration, a change from existing Stellantis EV’s. Basically the e-C3 Aircross always starts up in Eco mode with the C setting for Normal mode.

Performance

Top speed: 82mph
0-62mph: 10.4 seconds

Price

£22,437 (£19,937 with PiVG)Warranty & cover

Battery 8 years/100,000 miles @ 70% capacity
Warranty 3 years or 60,000 miles

Servicing 2 years / 16,000 miles

Cabin

Pretty much identical to the Plus trimmed C3 Aircross plus a bulkhead. So you get, Citroen’s Advanced Comfort Seats & Suspension, automatic air-con, LED lights, lane departure warning, a rear parking camera, 17” alloys a 10.25” touchscreen with Apple CarPlay & Android Auto. Large doors, a high driving position & good visibility all make the e-C3 Aircross easy to drive.

Infotainment

Lifted from many other Stellantis models it’s easy to use, features clear graphics, connects promptly to CarPlay & the slim horizontal digital drivers display is another nice touch & very Citroen. Separate climate controls sit beneath which is more good news. Wireless Apple CarPlay & Android Auto are included as standard.

Safety

Safety features are extensive. You get cruise control and speed limiter, Active Lane Departure Warning System, a Safety Pack which comes with Active Safety Brake – video based autonomous

emergency braking, Driver Attention Alert & Speed Limit Recognition. And the most annoying ones can be easily turned off via one long press of a button located down by your right knee.

Driving

We’ll split this into two sections. Urban & motorway, with the former proving just how good this conversion is if you drive in & around a town, village or City. The car-like ride, high levels of equipment & cabin ambience are first-class. Some road noise does intrude as the meshed bulkhead doesn’t prevent road noise from entering the cabin.  If you’re moving parcels, flowers, balloons, architectural drawings pretty much anything light it would be fantastic & at 30mph or below the range is pretty much 1 mile driven to 1 mile of range used.

However as we discovered the range takes a massive hit if you drive any distance at motorway speeds of 62mph & above, especially in colder weather as we did. A 340 mile trip to Newbury from home & back we thought would mean one stop each way, but unfortunately we required two. On the way there at Strensham we did top up to 80% which showed 139 miles & at Newbury a further 70 miles away we plugged in again with 32 miles of range left. Now fully charged & indicating 179 miles we hit the road back the following day & after just 75 miles had only 37 miles of range left. Warwick Mcdonalds added another 100 miles but painfully slowly as the van wouldn’t charge faster than at 30kW. Approaching Stoke with 33 miles left & 37 miles of range indicated we felt we should stop again topping up to 60 miles. What should have been a 2 hour 45 minute trip ended top taking 5 hours & 15 minutes. All in all a painful experience & our van included the on-board 11kW charger.

Pros

Comfortable, great cabin & well equipped van conversion with low BIK.

Cons

Terrible charging speeds. Range in cold weather almost 50% of claimed.

Verdict

If you need a small van that will carry a lightish load in & around your local area the e-C3 Aircross van is a winner, especially if you can plug-in at work or at home. On the flip-side if you’re looking to drive more than 100 motorway miles it could be a longer journey than you’d planned.

In town 4/5

On the motorway 1/5