The French PSA Group has now confirmed that from next year, in addition to the Opel Vivaro, the Peugeot Expert and Citroën Jumpy models will also be available on the market as purely electric van variants.

The electric versions of the light commercial vehicles will be available with two battery sizes (50 and 75 kWh) and are expected to achieve ranges of 200 and 300 kilometres respectively (according to WLTP). However, PSA has not yet mentioned prices. “Without compromising on features, the range will help strengthen our leadership in this segment in Europe,” says Xavier Peugeot, Senior Vice President of Light Commercial Vehicles at Groupe PSA.

By 2021, PSA plans to have electrified all of its light commercial vehicles and comparable passenger car models. The all-electric versions of the compact vans will be assembled at the Hordain plant in northern France and equipped with electric powertrains manufactured at the Trémery plant.

At the IAA in September, Opel had already given an outlook on the upcoming electric versions of its light commercial vehicles – and confirmed the electric version of the Vivaro for 2020. At this time, however, Opel did not yet provide battery and performance data for the E-LCV (Light Commercial Vehicle). Also, the Opel Combo Life, Combo Cargo and Zafira Life will be available in 2021 as purely electric vehicles. The Zafira Life is the passenger car version of the Vivaro van, and the two Combo variants are closely related to the Peugeot Rifter/Partner and Citroën Berlingo.

Rumours about possible electric versions of the PSA commercial vehicles have been around for some time. In October 2018, various media reports still stated that PSA wanted to expand its range of commercial vehicles with all-electric models by 2025 – which, according to the current announcement, should now be the case four years earlier. With the electric vehicles, PSA wants to appeal primarily to craftsmen and logistics companies, against the background of increasing access restrictions in city centres. Already in April of this year, PSA announced future electric versions of the large Transporter models Peugeot Boxer and Citroën Jumper, which will also be offered with two battery versions.

In cooperation with PSA, Toyota will also be launching purely battery-electric versions of the Proace and Proace City in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Since 2016, the Toyota Proace has been manufactured together with the Citroën Jumpy and Peugeot Expert at the PSA plant in Valenciennes, France. The Opel Zafira Life, as already mentioned, also uses this technology, but is built in Luton, England.

groupe-psa.com