The Peugeot e-Rifter is the cheapest EV for three kids under five – I’m driving one and here’s how it’s going

SEVEN years. Not long, and all that’s left until new cars with petrol or diesel engines are banished from Britain.

At one time you were looking at a G-Wiz or the milkman’s motor if you wanted to go electric, but today there’s a wealth of choice.

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Unless, that is, you have more than two young kids to cart about.

I’m that person, and because mine were born fairly close together they all have a bulky Isofix child seat.

There’s no shortage of petrol, diesel or hybrid cars that’ll fit three Isofix seats across their middle row, but a frustrating lack of EVs can.

The Audi Q7, Ford S-Max, Ford Galaxy, Peugeot 5008 and Citroen C5 Aircross are all fantastic options, but none come in a fully-electric form.

So where do you turn? Well, the Peugeot e-Rifter is a good place to start.

It’s essentially a Peugeot Partner van, but inside you’ll find seats and a reworked dash that feels more like a car’s.

It comes in two lengths, with five or seven seats, but importantly the middle row of both features three individual pews each with Isofix.

All e-Rifters have a 50kWh battery and a single electric motor at the front, which means a modest official range of around 170 miles.

Charging with a public 100kW charger will get you from 0-100% in 73 minutes. At home on a 7kW, probably overnight, it’s 7.5 hours.

Vauxhall and Citroen both have electric equivalents based on the same chassis, but to my eyes, the e-Rifter is the most interesting.

The Vauxhall Combo Life Electric is the priciest of the trio, while the Citroen e-Berlingo and e-Rifter are both within a few hundred quid of £32,000.

That’s as cheap as it gets if you want an EV and have three small kids.

A Tesla Model X is well north of £100k, Volvo’s recently announced EX90 isn’t far behind and large people carriers like the Mercedes EQV, Citroen e-Spacetourer and Peugeot’s own e-Traveller are too big on the road for most.

The e-Rifter we’re driving is the shorter five-seater in the more expensive GT trim of the two available.

Initial thoughts? I like the way it looks and with kids to transport, I love the sliding doors and the massive boot.

It might end up being built in Britain too.

There’s stuff I don’t like, though. I’ll go into that in the next update.

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