Toyota Proace City Electric Review 2024

Toyota is resisting going fully electric with its passenger cars, seeing hybrid and hydrogen as its highways to the future. But for vans, a tie-up with Stellantis and very different user requirements mean that EVs are very much part of the brand’s forward outlook. But is the smallest electric van, the Toyota Proace City Electric, worth a plug? Read our full Toyota Proace City Electric review to find out.

Sharing its bodywork, electric motor and battery technology with the Peugeot e-Partner, Vauxhall Combo Electric, Citroen e-Berlingo and Fiat e-Doblo, the Toyota Proace City Electric has a different face with angular headlamps that echo the brand’s family look, but the rest of the sheet metal is essentially the same as its sister models.

As, indeed, is the electric battery and motor, which offers up to 205 miles on the WLTP mixed cycle, with three stage battery regeneration and a 52kWh battery pack.

The Toyota Proace City Electric is also offered with CCS rapid charging at a maximum speed of 100kW allowing a 0-80% charge in around 30 minutes on a 100kW charger. The onboard charger, meanwhile, is a 7kW unit compatible with most home sockets, while a three-phase compatible 11kW charger is offered an option.

There are two body lengths available in the UK market, imaginatively named Short and Long, the latter of which is also offered as a crew cab with flat-folding seats and a pop-up bulkhead to increase load space when they’re not in use.

It’s a smart and handsomely styled van offered in two trim levels – the fleet-focused Active and the more small business-focused Icon, which gets improved interior trim and body-coloured bumpers.

All versions come with a smartphone station with DAB radio, Bluetooth and two USB connections, with inductive charging. Safety equipment includes driver attention alert, advanced emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, cruise control and rear parking sensors, along with optional Dynamic Surround View, which projects images from two cameras to a rear-view mirror.

Power comes from a 136PS electric motor with 270Nm of torque, and offers a lively driving experience, with a payload of 780kg and towable weight of 750kg. The Toyota Proace City Electric, while not a name that rolls off the tongue, also has a 10-year warranty like all other Toyota models, which will make it an especially appealing package for smaller businesses, private users and sole traders.

The Toyota Proace City Electric matches its Stellantis stablemates among the best small electric vans to drive – it’s a great all-rounder with tidy handling, a tight turning circle (11.8m) and surprisingly peppy performance, while its low roof height means it’ll fit in most garages and multi-storey car parks with no issues.

The ride is great and soaks up broken surfaces well, while the electric power steering is both precise and well-weighted.

There are three separate driving modes: Eco, Normal and Power. Each delivers a different power output and the 205-mile range only really applies in 81PS Eco mode, but the instant torque of the electric motor means that’ll be enough for most urban applications.

Expect a range of closer to 145 miles in Normal mode, where the power output is 109PS. You’ll only get the full 136PS in Power mode, which saps battery power alarmingly quickly but comes into its own when merging with fast traffic via slip roads – just remember to switch back afterwards if you want to maximise the distance the van will travel.

The new Dynamic Surround View system aids visibility by projecting two views of the rear of the van to a digital rear-view mirror. It’s really useful for changing lanes and driving in traffic, but unlike a traditional mirror the camera system makes it hard to judge distances and reverse parking manoeuvres are still best conducted using the mirrors and parking sensors to accurately judge distance.

Drive is selected via a toggle switch on the centre console, whilst the amount of regenerative braking can be controlled via steering wheel paddles that adjust the braking power – in its strongest setting, this can slow the van to walking pace and in urban use will help increase the overall range, but on the open road it slows the van a bit too sharply for comfort.

The headline payload figure for the Toyota Proace City Electric is 780kg. That’s 220kg less than the diesel versions, but as small electric vans go its impressive, and better than the Renault Kangoo E-Tech, for example.

There are two lengths of Toyota Proace City Electric offered in the UK, known inventively as ‘Short’ and ‘Long’. Both are designed with function very much in mind. In Short layout the Toyota Proace City is 4.4 metres long, with 3.3 metres of usable load bay length and the option of a load-through bulkhead. It’ll swallow a Euro pallet and comes with a single side loading door.

Twin side loading doors are offered on the 4.75-metre-length Long model, which will gobble up two Euro pallets, as well as a crew cab option which will still swallow one pallet.

Both have a flat load bay and narrow wheelarch intrusions, making them pretty spacious for small vans.

The cabin is smart and well-trimmed with a new digital instrument cluster that’s both fuss-free and easy to use, and a concentric steering wheel that allows better access and egress to the cabin – but in Active trim it does feel a bit spartan with hard plastics and some cheaper-feeling trim. The Icon has a softer touch steering wheel and more specification, making it feel more upmarket as a result.

Major controls are operated either via the 10-inch touchscreen or (in the case of the ventilation features) through fiddly buttons mounted beneath it – easy to operate with the simple up/down paddles of the climate control but not quite so intuitive with the more basic controls of air-con equipped models.