Peugeot Expert van review

Our opinion on the Peugeot Expert 

While the Peugeot Expert was launched way back in 2016, a recent facelift means it is still very relevant to modern van buyers. Other vans in this class are more spacious inside, but the Expert is comfortable, well-equipped and has an excellent electric model available as well as the normal diesel options. Two body length options and a crew van mean there should be a version to suit most businesses, and the new design is rather modern looking, at least from the front.

About the Peugeot Expert

The current-generation Peugeot Expert first arrived in 2016 with a new platform, improved looks and a range of safety kit added to the equipment list. The range was then updated in 2024 with a facelift, bringing a new front-end look and more equipment inside.

The Peugeot Expert is a medium-sized van that also goes by various other names as a result of badge engineering, most notably the incredibly similar Citroen Dispatch. There’s also a Vauxhall version called the Vauxhall Vivaro, and to complicate matters these vans have different names abroad as well (Citroen Jumpy and Opel Vivaro). The Fiat Scudo and Toyota Proace are yet more current vans derived from the same platform, and there are passenger versions of these vans as well to add still more confusion in. All you really need to know is that these models are built together and share pretty much everything but the design (inside and out) and badges.

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Under the skin, the Expert shares platform tech with Stellantis cars such as the Peugeot 308, so the Peugeot Expert and its siblings are more car-like to drive than many other rival vans. It also means some of the latest safety tech seen in mainstream production cars is available in these commercial vehicles.

The Peugeot Expert is available in two body lengths called Standard and Long (there was a compact option before the facelift, but this is no longer available), plus there’s a six-seat Crew Van. Two diesel engines and an all-electric version are available, all front-wheel drive only. There’s an automatic gearbox for the more powerful diesel and the EV.

Prices start from around £28,000 for the diesel, while the electric e-Expert is quite a bit higher at roughly £42,000, partly thanks to the new, larger 75kWh battery. The more powerful diesel brings power from 118bhp to 142bhp and adds about £1,000 to the price, while the auto gearbox adds another £1,500 or so.

The electric e-Expert has a range of up to 230 miles according to official figures and you can grab a 5-80 per cent charge in 45 minutes at a compatible 100kW fast charge point. This is a good rate for a commercial vehicle, but owners of modern electric cars might find it slower than expected.

All Expert models come in Professional or Asphalt trims, with a modest price difference of around £800 between them. There’s also a Sport trim available on the electric version or the top-spec diesel. The Crew van is only available in Asphalt trim with the electric powertrain.

Standard kit includes a ten-inch infotainment screen with smartphone connectivity, parking sensors, side doors on both sides, twin rear doors, 16-inch wheels, lane keep assist, high beam assist, a driver attention alert, AEB and auto lights and wipers. Asphalt adds 17-inch wheels, a more upmarket exterior look, a load-through hatch for the bulkhead and a TomTom sat-nav system. 

Sport is a special model with Peugeot graphics on the outside, fancy wheels and a bodykit that makes it look like a rally support vehicle. Dual-zone climate control, a heated steering wheel, wireless phone charging and a rear-view camera all make it more comfortable to drive as well.

For the 2024 facelift, Peugeot removed some versions from sale so the default equipment you get is now better, but the price is higher as well. All versions now come with 10-inch driver and touchscreen displays, sliding doors on each side, a full steel bulkhead and air-conditioning. Auto lights and wipers, parking sensors, heated mirrors, auto high beam, lane keep assist and wireless phone connectivity are standard as well.

Asphalt trim adds a through-loading bulkhead, sat-nav, larger wheels and a different exterior look for not a lot more money, while Sport trim adds loads of equipment but looks rather outlandish and costs a lot more than the other trim levels.

You can add options to the entry-level Professional trim including sat-nav (£650), a load-through bulkhead (£350) or an alarm (£225). A 180-degree reversing camera and sat-nav are available as part of the £850 “Camera Pack with Connected Navi”. Peugeot also offers windows for the rear and side doors, a window for the bulkhead and a plastic bulkhead for better in-cabin comfort.

Official fuel economy for the diesel vans is only okay. The 118bhp 1.5-litre BlueHDi 120 is the best of the bunch, and manages up to 44.8mpg. Go for the more powerful 2.0-litre BlueHDi 145 and that drops to 38.7mpg (or 39.8mpg with the automatic gearbox). 

Electric range, battery life and charge time

The 50kWh battery in the electric e-Expert has been removed after the 2024 facelift and now a 75kWh pack is the only option. This means a range of up to 230 miles is possible in mixed driving, according to official figures. That’s the same as for the electric version of the Citroen Dispatch, since it uses the same motor and battery set-up.

Expect to get the best efficiency around town and at lower speeds, especially in traffic. If you do a lot of longer trips on the motorway you’ll see the expected range drop significantly as the motor works harder to beat wind resistance.

The maximum charging rate here is 100kW, which can bring the battery from five to 80 per cent capacity in 45 minutes. This is decent but not ground-breaking, and while we’d prefer it to be faster, most commercial vehicles lag behind passenger cars when it comes to charging speed.

Charging from a three-pin plug takes 37 hours, so you’ll want to install a 7.4kW wallbox to cut that down to a much more realistic 11 hours and 20 minutes. Rarer three-phase 11kW charging brings it down even more to seven-and-a-half hours if you add the £400 optional extra to allow this.

The Peugeot Expert’s cargo volume of 5.3 cubic metres for the base model (the longer model has 6.1m3) trails behind key rivals such as the Ford Transit Custom, which has 5.8 cubic metres of space. 

The wheelbase is 3,275mm in both versions of the van, but there’s an extra 350mm of rear overhang (from 4,981mm to 5,331mm) in the longer model. However, a Transit Custom offers a 6.8 cubic metre cargo volume, quite a bit more than the 6.1 offered here.

The load-through bulkhead option adds an extra 500 cubic centimetres of space under the passenger seat for longer items, since the van’s load length at the floor increases from 2,512mm to 3,674mm. 

The Expert measures up at 1,258mm between the wheelarches, 1,636mm in total across the cargo bay and 1,397mm to the roof, all of which are exactly the same as the Citroen Dispatch sister van. The side doors are 935mm wide and 1,241mm high, which is on the small side compared to rivals but they come as standard on both flanks.

The Crew van has a six-seat layout thanks to a three-seat front compartment (two seats are standard on the main van models) and a reduction in cargo space. Total cargo volume is 3.2 cubic metres, or four cubic metres for the longer version. The cargo area is 2,017mm or 2,365mm long, and access to it is only via the back doors since there’s a bulkhead behind the passengers.

The best payload available is in the BlueHDi 145 manual, which has a maximum payload of 1,384kg, while the electric Crew van has a maximum of 915kg. You can technically tow up to a tonne in the electric versions, but look elsewhere for that: the 1.5 BlueHDi diesel can haul two tonnes and the 2.0 model can tow 2.5 tonnes.

The Expert is based on architecture mainly used by passenger cars, so you get lots of standard safety kit including driver and passenger airbags, lane-departure warning, driver-attention alert and speed-limit recognition technology.

This, along with autonomous emergency braking, helped the Expert earn a four-star rating in its Euro NCAP crash tests. Like all its sister vans, it received a 75 per cent score for the safety kit on board, 52 per cent for crash avoidance and 80 per cent for post-crash safety. 

A 180-degree reversing camera system is available and the kit adds front and rear parking sensors plus rear and side-view cameras to help reduce blind spots as much as possible. There’s a display on screen taken from a camera mounted in the door mirror as well as the rear-facing camera, and we found it really useful when manoeuvring. 

The engines in the Expert are shared with loads of other vans and even cars, so parts will be easy to get and the tried-and-tested nature of commercial vehicle engines means they should be reliable. The electric versions have even less to go wrong.

It’s a shame that on the base model you have to pay extra to get an alarm system, as security will be a top priority for a lot of the van’s buyers.

There’s no doubt the Peugeot Expert is extremely refined and comfortable on the road, and we reckon it vies with the best in class for driver comfort. In the Peugeot’s case, it’s thanks to the car-derived underpinnings, and the fact that PSA engineers designed the Expert knowing they had to make the full MPV passenger car version ride convincingly on the same running gear.

So the van offers a pleasantly supple ride, and cabin noise is well controlled. There’s a bit of boom transmitted through the standard van bulkhead, but it's better than a Mercedes Vito in that regard. It helps that the seats offer loads of adjustment and are very comfortable too. The driving position is reasonable, but not quite as high as you'll get in a Renault Trafic, although there’s an unusual ‘letterbox’ feel to the cabin thanks to the low roof and relatively small windscreen area.

The engines are audible and sometimes gruff under load, but never unpleasantly thrashy or grating, and relatively quiet while idling. The 118bhp version is a good performer and feels nippy and responsive to the throttle, although the manual box could be better. The eight-speed auto-equipped BlueHDi 180 is quicker still, and the gearbox is nice and smooth. It can feel hesitant at times when pulling out of junctions, but it kicks down well.

We do have a couple of gripes though. The brakes work fine, but they are rather grabby when you press the pedal. It's something you get used to, but we’d prefer a more progressive action, because it will reduce the risk of loose items in the load bay falling over or flying around. The steering isn’t much fun either. The electrically assisted wheel is over-light, and while the Expert goes where you point it, there isn’t any sort of feedback to help you place the vehicle in corners.

Still, as long as you’re not specifying a support vehicle for your world rally team, the lack of driver engagement shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The Expert feels stable and secure in corners, and for commercial buyers it’s much more important that it’s easy and relaxing to drive. 

The electric e-Expert is quiet and smooth to drive, and its 134bhp output means it feels quick enough off the line, but on the motorway it can be found lacking if you try to speed up quickly to overtake something.

Town driving, visibility and parking

Light steering and the smooth auto gearbox (and single-speed auto in the EV) mean the Expert is great around town, and only the door mirrors could be improved when it comes to visibility. Manual versions are a bit notchy and unpleasant to use but the automatic is better than ever, with nice smooth shifts.

Electric models feature paddles behind the steering wheel to modulate the amount of regenerative braking when you lift off the throttle. The most aggressive mode is so strong the brake lights will come on to warn drivers behind, although it’s not strong enough for one-pedal driving.

Motorway driving and long-distance comfort

Wind and road noise at motorway speeds is the main issue in all versions, as they drown out the engines and are present in the EV model too. Comfort is good here, though, as the suspension deals with bumps well.

When unladen, the Expert is a little bouncy, but load up the back and it rides smoothly again. The electric model’s heavy batteries mean it’s comfortable pretty much all the time.

Step into the Expert’s comfortable cabin, and the first thing you notice is the relatively small glass area, which gives a letterbox view out across the high, stubby bonnet. The effect is carried through to the rear of the vehicle in passenger carrying versions, with the glass area reduced by curtain airbags mounted above the side glass. It’s more of an interesting feature than an issue, as the view out of the road ahead is absolutely fine. You do sit lower in the Expert than in some mid-sized van rivals, such as the Ford Transit Custom and Renault Trafic.

On first impressions the interior has a real look of quality too, although prying fingers will reveal plastic trim that gives a little under pressure, and less than perfect fit for some components. If it was a car you'd be a little more critical, but for a van the overall effect is stylish and desirable. You get a large touchscreen as standard in the facelifted version but thankfully the climate controls are still separate physical buttons and dials.

Headroom is good but the cabin is quite narrow if you choose the three-seat front layout (a two-seater is available too) and travel three-up. The middle passenger will thank you for choosing the auto or electric models so you aren’t reaching into their personal space to change gear. 

The Crew Van version has three up front and three behind, and the back seats suffer from the same narrow layout as the front. Access is easy via the sliding doors, though, and windows in those doors mean it’s not too dark back there.

Infotainment, sat-nav and stereo

A 10-inch high-definition touchscreen and a 10-inch driver’s display now come as standard in the Expert range. It’s nice and easy to use and looks fairly modern. Sat-nav isn’t standard but you can add it as an option or move up to a higher trim level.

Wireless smartphone connectivity is included, or you can plug into the USB-C sockets, and using your phone for mapping is the better option in our experience anyway.

There are a number of Peugeot Expert powertrains and bodystyles to pick from, so the ideal van will mostly boil down to your business’s needs and requirements. The fully-electric Peugeot E-Expert would make an ideal workhorse for short distance and ‘last minute’ delivery drivers working in built-up urban environments, as running costs will be kept in check.

If an electric van isn’t suitable for your, the diesel engines should be fairly efficient and keep up with traffic. Our pick of the bunch is the 118bhp 1.5-litre BlueHDI 120 which manages up to 44.8mpg in the real-world, while also saving you some money over the 2.0-litre diesel unit.

Alternatives

The Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch, Fiat Scudo and Toyota Proace are all basically the same, so you can freely choose between them based on what’s the best price at the time you’re buying. The Toyota comes with a better warranty than the others, though, so it tends to be pricier. 

You might consider the flashy and upmarket Volkswagen ID. Buzz Cargo as a rival for the e-Expert, but the German brand’s normal Transporter panel van is also a good option for combustion power. The Ford Transit Custom is our favourite van in this class and comes in diesel, electric and petrol plug-in hybrid forms.

The Renault Trafic is another option, along with the Nissan Primastar (as they are equivalents like the siblings above). You could also look into the Mercedes Vito, which has been updated recently as well.