Peugeot e-Rifter vs Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric

The Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric costs £4,330 more than the Peugeot e-Rifter. For that premium it adds 4 more seats (9 versus 5). The Peugeot e-Rifter is not just cheaper - it also offers a 2.6s quicker 0-62mph time. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Peugeot e-Rifter comes out ahead overall.

The Peugeot e-Rifter is £4,330 cheaper to buy. The Peugeot e-Rifter is cheaper to charge, roughly £176 a year versus £264 for the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Peugeot e-Rifter comes out roughly £4,770 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 166 miles for the Peugeot e-Rifter and 152 miles for the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric - effectively matched, and both well below their WLTP figures because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 30 minutes in the Peugeot e-Rifter and 45 in the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric, so the Peugeot e-Rifter loses less time at each stop.

The two are within 1 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 480 mm of total clearance for the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric and about 479 mm of total clearance for the Peugeot e-Rifter. The Peugeot e-Rifter also turns in a 1.6 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Peugeot e-Rifter and 84% for the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.