Final Report: An impressive showing
Now that our long-term Grandland has gone to that great auction house in the sky, I’m left to reflect on just how effortless the last six months and 12,000 miles have been.
Maybe it’s not surprising, given how well modern Vauxhalls have been doing in recent customer satisfaction surveys.
Certainly, the Grandland is not short of showroom appeal, thanks to its fully lit front grille and illuminated Griffin brand icon. Inside, it’s a similar alluring proposition and light years removed from the acres of black-on-black plastics of previous Vauxhall cabins. Thanks to a harmonious use of textures and coloured strip lighting, it is a very attractive environment.
Granted, early on, the steering wheel buttons and the swipes and scrolling actions of the many infotainment menus were a bit sluggish to respond, but a mid-term software upgrade helped speed up matters no end. First world problems and nothing compared to being stranded in a Surrey car park. Now, I’m a bit of a handyman and I had a good idea what was causing the Grandland to play possum but given you need specialist training to work on EVs I wasn’t about to prise open the bonnet and risk frying my hair. What’s left of it. Thankfully, the RAC man arrived within the hour, and it didn’t take him long to retorque the slack 12-volt battery connectors and get all systems working again.
Ideally, I would have liked a bigger main battery, but driving predominately in daylight and through the milder months meant most of my North to South odysseys could be managed with a couple of stops. The Ultimate spec’s heated seats also helped take the strain out of matters, and I’m convinced any company employing people who drive for a living should have these fellas written into their terms of employment, as they can only help reduce back pain induced sick days.
Although my kids have long since flown the nest and I no longer require four seats, I still like to have a motor with a decent-sized boot. I could make do with something more compact by slinging my golf clubs on the redundant rear seats – my bulky electric golf trolley’s wheels are usually thick with mud so they live full time in the boot – but I’m not keen on the idea of putting temptation in the way of unscrupulous miscreants. Thanks to its capacious 500-litre cargo hold and high-mounted parcel shelf, this was never a problem with the Grandland, as it was always a simple matter of stacking my clubs on top of my trolley and still having room left over to store my laptop bag and an overnight case.
Throughout its six months pounding, our Grandland remained resolutely squeak and rattle-free, while the near-silent running gear and excellent wind and road noise isolation ensured it performed its predominately motorway mileage duties with consummate ease. It’s just a shame that Vauxhall’s engineers didn’t pay more attention to the steering connection or the restless nature of the suspension at lower speeds, because with some additional UK road specific tuning I’m confident the Grandland would be an exceptional motor to drive. C’est la vie.
Speaking of which, because of all the down time I spent at charging points I had time to brush up on my French, and I’m not talking about the expletives I used to curse underperforming chargers. Although things are improving, I still encountered out of order chargers, chargers that wouldn’t accept credit cards, chargers that refuse to relinquish their connection when done, chargers that put out a fraction of the advertised power output, chargers which had drivers queuing three deep, and chargers which still charge highly exorbitant tariffs.
Of course, none of this was the Grandland’s fault and overall I was very impressed by Vauxhall’s top-of-the-range SUV. Yes, it will still be a struggle for Vauxhall to convince many to consider a Grandland and it has been suggested dropping the Vauxhall griffin emblem in favour of the sexier Opel lightning bolt maybe one way of placating badge snobs, but maybe the latest cars just need to speak for themselves.
| Model | Vauxhall Grandland Electric Ultimate |
| P11D price | £40,495 |
| As tested | £40,495 |
| WLTP Combined Range | 325 miles |
| Test consumption | 3.7 miles/kWh |
| Mileage | 12,065 |
4th Report: At the familiarity stage
There are many well-documented phases in any long-term relationship. Anticipation, acquisition, familiarity, and in all too many cases, a parting of the ways, to name but four.
Right now, I’m at the familiarity stage in my dalliance with our Vauxhall Grandland, and I’m feeling pretty good about it. Of course, I still remember the pang of initial excitement when editor Collins suggested I might like to run a Grandland for six months, as having driven the car on the international launch, I knew it was a very decent all-rounder. I also knew the EV Grandland, which was coming my way, with its 73kWh-capacity battery and 213hp electric motor, was a far better rendition than the rather gruff mild-hybrid 48V 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol-engined version.
Then came the joy of seeing the Grandland for the first time in its resplendent two-tone impact copper and gloss black colour scheme, even if it did make me giggle a wee bit, as it reminded me of the conversation I had with head designer Mark Adams on the launch. While he was keen to pontificate on the merits and contrasts of the minimalism, functionality, and nature-inspired aesthetics of Northern European design, versus the Southern European approach, which often features more vibrant, ornate, and classical styles, I was more concerned about how my mates would react to seeing me driving a copper-coloured Vauxhall.
Now that the intoxicating new car smell and uniformly hoovered carpets are a distant memory, I’ve moved into a state of cosy familiarity with our Grandland and not in a contemptuous way. It’s simply because it is such a straightforward car to live with on a daily basis, which in some ways makes it easy to take for granted. This ease of use is partly due to the interior, which is deceptively spacious; something my fellow Newcastle United supporter mates have positively confirmed whenever I’ve picked them up on route to St James’ Park.
It’s not a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul either, as the Grandland’s boot is a very healthy 500 litres with the rear seats in place. Now that my carrying days are over, and my slimline pencil golf bag has been usurped by a full-fat tour bag and an electric trolley, I was a wee bit concerned the additional cornucopia might be too bulky and force the Grandland’s automatic tailgate to recoil in protest. As much as I appreciate an automatic tailgate, and the Grandland’s is one of the better versions, as it can be opened and shut via the key fob, it has the potential to make me feel like a proper spanner. Pressing the remote close button and casually starting to walk across the car park, only to hear the tailgate spring back skyward because your six iron has interrupted its descent, is not a cool look. Thankfully, I needn’t have worried, because with a bit of judicious packing, everything slots home without too much faff.
In my last report, I mentioned how the Grandland had been in for a health check and some software updates. Now, usually, the influence of these downloads are difficult, if not impossible, to detect, but I swear the Grandland’s infotainment processing response rates have stepped up a notch, and the radio steering wheel buttons controls no longer require repeated prods to function as they should. Talk about a ghost in the machine.
Speaking of improvements, of all the EVs I’ve run on a sustained basis, I feel the Grandland has come closest to alleviating my inherent anxiety and is the best at distracting me from constantly staring at the remaining range meter like a rabbit caught in headlights. Of course, the warm weather and the positive effect this has had on the battery’s real-world range has helped no end, and because I haven’t any catastrophic run ins with the charging network of late, the more time I spend with the Grandland, the more I’m enjoying our relationship.
| Model | Vauxhall Grandland Electric Ultimate |
| P11D price | £40,495 |
| As tested | £40,495 |
| WLTP Combined Range | 325 miles |
| Test consumption | 3.7 miles/kWh |
| Mileage | 9,865 |
3rd Report: Spec comparison
Are press cars built to the same standards as those vehicles sitting in showrooms up and down the land, or are they singled out for special treatment?
Having recently had the opportunity to drive a dealer demo version of the Grandland EV and compare it directly to our press loan example, I can tell you the differences are reassuringly subtle. Yes, the dealer car was a wee bit inferior ride quality wise and a tad noisier in terms of electric motor whine and road noise infiltration, but it would take a very zealous customer to recognise the differences between the two cars. Hello!
These peas-in-a-pod similarities are clearly down to major advances in manufacturing techniques and the way modern robotised assembly lines have eliminated many of the anomalies which used to plague so many assembly plants. Equally, when you have the buying power of a multi-conglomerate like Stellantis, you can insert your own employees in the supply chain to better control the tolerances of components coming from outside suppliers.
Having worked at the skunk works end of the industry, I can tell you that most manufacturers do have departments dedicated to press car preparation, but the prep levels are nowhere near as intensive as they used to be in days gone by. As I’ve stated, this is primarily due to better build quality control but it is also down to the immense expense associated with pulling a bare metal body from the production line, checking and adjusting the tolerances of every panel and shut line and blueprinting individual powertrains to ensure they produce the best combination of power and NVH performance. There are loads of industry tales involving certain Germanic manufacturers and the fanatical extremes they used to go to gain positive reviews, especially from their domestic press. These included everything from filling door voids with spray foam to reduce noise levels, boosting power outputs to demolish official 0-62mph times and even certain vehicles being ‘involved in accidents’ on route to a publishing house, because said manufacturer had replicated the magazine’s test procedure in advance and concluded its shiny new model wouldn’t do particularly well in a group test against its nearest competitors. Allegedly.
Anyway, enough reminiscing, as BD74 EWP is back from its first service, freshly valeted and looking resplendent in its Impact Copper and gloss black colour combo. I’m reliably informed by Vauxhall that the somewhat early initial 8,000 miles service is the exception in the maintenance schedule, as subsequent intervals fall every 16,000 miles or every two years, whichever comes first.
What’s more, that initial service turned out to be little more than a half-hour inspection rather than a full-on spanner session, involving checking, and where necessary, topping up fluid levels and flashing in the latest software updates.
Having spent time in the more basic GS Grandland, I realised just how much I missed certain niceties in our Ultimate model, such as the head-up display. I’m all in favour of anything that helps keep my eyes on the road ahead and thumbs up to the person who put the HUD height adjustment in the same control toggle switch as the one which adjusts the rear-view mirrors. I’ve been in countless vehicles where this adjustment is buried in a touchscreen sub-menu, so the ability to alter the eye line function so readily is a particularly welcome feature. Unfortunately, this doesn’t prevent me from having to engage with the touchscreen for many other interactions, as trying to hit the screen icons when driving can be a truly maddening hit-and-miss affair. To be fair, the Grandland is far from unique in this respect.
Thankfully, there are separate switches to adjust the climate control. Still, because one of the driver’s vents is located below the dash-dominating touchscreen, and another is incorporated in the door card, it feels like yet another frustrating example of design taking precedence over function. While the door-mounted vent just about directs its breeze over my right ear, if I angle the dash vent fully towards me the internal flaps close off the flow of chilled air, making it impossible to direct a cooling breeze directly at my perspiring core. I’m guessing this wouldn’t be such a problem if my inside leg measurement were a bit longer and this isn’t a problem for my front passenger as they are treated to a more traditional chest level vent arrangement. Let me tell you, their smug looks do even less to cool my demeanour.
| Model | Vauxhall Grandland Electric Ultimate |
| P11D price | £40,495 |
| As tested | £40,495 |
| WLTP Combined Range | 325 miles |
| Test consumption | 3.7 miles/kWh |
| Mileage | 9,170 |
2nd Report: Service time
It’s amazing just how many people are still very suspicious of EVs.
Longevity remains a biggie, and ‘what happens when the battery gives up the ghost?’ in particular. Of course, whenever I explain to these people that their suck, squeeze, bang powerplants are made up of hundreds of moving parts that will eventually give up the ghost, often with catastrophic results, I’m usually met with a shrug of blithe acceptance. Given an EV powertrain has a fraction of the reciprocating parts of an internal combustion engine, and it is not unusual to see used EVs for sale with stratospheric mileages, you must think the industry is missing a trick by not promoting the inherent endurance of EVs more vociferously.
This said, with just over seven and a half thousand miles on the tacho, I was surprised to see a red spanner icon appear on the Grandland’s infotainment screen, accompanied by a message suggesting I visit my nearest Vauxhall dealership. Consequently, I’ll find out first-hand soon enough just how much maintenance an EV requires and just how much of a shoeing my wallet will be subjected to when the Grandland goes in for its first service.
The reason this service has come about so speedily is due to me charging up and down the M1 between Newcastle and London like a mad thing, and for a bloke who has a well-documented disdain for unnecessarily bulky SUVs, the last place I imagined I would have a road to Damascus conversion would be on the congested streets of SW17. It still amuses me no-end how certain metropolis pilots who can just about see over the steering wheel are happy to deliver little Lord Fauntleroy and Princess Chardonnay to the school gates in something akin to Mount Etna on wheels. This is even more amazing when you know they have spent hours negotiating the capital’s narrow streets trying not to bash wing mirrors with their fellow protagonists coming in the opposite direction.
Thankfully, the Grandland is a mere minnow compared to some 4×4 leviathans, so there’s less emphasis on my solar plexus when squeaking past some bull-in-a-china-shop heading my way on a narrow back street. However, it’s the parlous state of the capital’s roads and the interminable amount of speed humps that have caused me to view the Grandland with a newfound respect. Thanks to its healthy ground clearance and long travel suspension, vaulting over torturous humps and traversing potholes deep enough to conceal the entrance to Hades is clearly one of the Grandland’s greater strengths.
All these long-distance trips have however revealed a couple of niggly frustrations. Firstly, the steering wheel radio controls need to be operated with a surgeon’s precision to perform their most basic functions, and secondly, despite the front seat cushions featuring a trench-like depression running front to rear, which allegedly reduces pressure on the tailbone, as far as my derriere can attest, this does little or nothing to ease the onset of bum numbness.
Perhaps not surprisingly given the car’s relaxed suspension attitude, when I return to the flowing roads of Northumberland it feels far less at ease. Although it has plenty of grip when pushed, the somewhat limited steering connection and a fair bit of lateral front axle deflection when clipping mid corner depressions, along with defined nosedive under hard braking, dictates discretion be the better party of valour when the roads turn twisty.
As I mentioned earlier, the Grandland isn’t in the same ballpark as many of its bulkier SUV gang members, but it is deceptively long, so when it came to disposing of an old king-sized mattress it was a simple case of flipping down the rear seats and sliding the busted springs in with a minimum of fuss. Given SUV stands for sports utility vehicle, I reckon I’m on safe ground suggesting the Grandland is more utility than sporty, but I guess two out of three ain’t bad.
| Model | Vauxhall Grandland Electric Ultimate |
| P11D price | £40,495 |
| As tested | £40,495 |
| WLTP Combined Range | 325 miles |
| Test consumption | 3.7 miles/kWh |
| Mileage | 7,890 |
1st Report: Battery bliss
I think I must be having a mid-life crisis. Again.
Whereas I was once obsessed with performance, steering feel, ride attributes, NVH and perceived interior quality, I now find myself ignoring these niceties in favour of: how far will it go between charges?
Consequently, I was delighted to greet the arrival of our new long-term Vauxhall Grandland Electric, almost as much as the warmth of the summer sun.
Having spent more winters than I care to remember in weedy-batteried EVs, slipstreaming HGVs and turning my tootsies blue, to eke out enough range to get me home without stopping at some one-armed-bandit EV charger, I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate the Grandland’s 73kWh battery and its 325-mile range potential.
Of course, many EVs provide greater touring range, and I still find myself driving studiously, but because I only needed to stop twice to recharge on a recent jaunt from Newcastle to London – I have had to stop as many as four times in some EVs – this made me a very happy bunny.
Even though I’m not really one to worry too much about aesthetics, and I’m particularly ambivalent when it comes to the cookie cutters designs of SUV’s, I have been surprised by just how many favourable comments the Grandland has received, especially regarding its two-tone Impact Copper and gloss black colour scheme. The LED-lit signature grille and the seamlessly rolled door tops have also come in for their fair share of praise, and I was also on board with the slick looks of the latter until I discovered those hidden drainage troughs collect more arboreal detritus than a leafy Surrey mansion’s gutters when parked under a tree.
Inside, the Grandland is extremely spacious and smartly trimmed, although I am at a bit of a loss to know why the front seats have GS-monikered headrests when the car is a top of the range Ultimate version. I can only assume this is down to a slight hiccup on the production line. I’ll let you know when I know. The boot is also on the larger side, something which came in very handy when moving my adopted daughter’s goods and chattels home from university for the summer break. That said, I certainly think there is a bit of smoke and mirrors going on with the official litreage quotation, as the parcel shelf sits so high it reduces the view through the rear screen to something resembling a letter box.
Driving impressions so far have been reasonably favourable – more of this in reports to come – although it hasn’t all been plain sailing. On one of my early endeavours, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and displayed an urgent message, imploring me to immediately visit my nearest dealership. As I was on the M1 at the time and the car seemed to be running fine I was inclined to think it could just be an electronic glitch of some sort, because as we all know, modern infotainment systems are more neurotic than a tech billionaire on ketamine.
Unfortunately, my shoot-from-the hip analysis proved to be well wide of the mark this time. Returning to the Grandland after stopping for a quick coffee, my heart sunk when the central locking failed to respond to the key. Ever the optimist and thinking the battery in the fob may have been kaput, I pulled the hard key from its sarcophagus and managed to open the door manually. Unfortunately, that was as far as I got, as repeated attempts to summon up any signs of life were greeted by a point-blank refusal.
Thankfully, the RAC patrol man arrived within the hour, and it didn’t take him long to diagnose the problem. Apparently, the 12V battery connectors hadn’t been torqued up sufficiently and this lack of purchase had meant the battery wasn’t receiving a charge and it had run completely flat. A quick wrist flick of a 13mm spanner and a resurrecting buzz from a battery pack later and all systems were good to go again. That said, since then, I have had a few error messages pop up on the infotainment screen regarding failing headlight functions and the screen will occasionally throw a wobbler and fall asleep for a few seconds. This often coincides with dodgy date display, which seems obsessed with living in the past, as it repeatedly falls a couple of days behind Greenwich Mean Time. Maybe it is working to the same schedule as the guy who fitted the random headrest and forgot to tighten the battery leads.
Standard equipment: 20in alloy wheels, dual-zone electronic climate control with heat pump, LED headlights and taillights, body colour rear spoiler, front and rear wheel arch cladding in high-gloss. 10in touchscreen with wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto, head-up display, front and rear parking sensors, electric parking brake, power-fold door mirrors with welcome puddle lighting, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist and traffic sign recognition, rear traffic cross alert, heated windscreen, panoramic sunroof, powered tailgate.
| Model | Vauxhall Grandland Electric Ultimate |
| P11D price | £40,495 |
| As tested | £40,495 |
| WLTP Combined Range | 325 miles |
| Test consumption | TBC |
| Mileage | 3,670 |
