Opel Combo-e Electric 50 kWh (A) Review

This is the Opel Combo-e. The smaller of the two all-electric commercial vehicles available here from the marque, it comes with a name that many will associate with playing a round of Street Fighter or Crazy Taxi rather than the mundane business of piloting a van.

But perhaps its practical body and cheap-to-run drivetrain could be just the winning combo to excite contractors and last-mile delivery businesses looking to expand their fleets?

Quiet drive and settled ride

Step in and drive off in the Opel Combo-e and the first thing that immediately strikes you is just how well-sorted the ride is. Soft springs here allow the vehicle to take on all manner of road imperfections with minimal disturbance.

But more impressive still is the fact that damping here is still sufficient so that the Opel Combo-e manages to avoid that constant bobbing and unsettledness that plagues many commercial vehicles once at speed.

Maintaining this high speed in the Combo-e is also a largely fuss-free affair. Insulation levels here are remarkable by the standards of a commercial vehicle, with tyre drone being the only real enemy to overall comfort at 70km/h. Opt for this Combo-e and you certainly won't be dreading the work day ahead, even when your clients are scattered all across the island.

Punchy motor and sizable battery capacity

Speaking of which, you won't be constantly on the lookout for chargers as you make your cross-island deliveries either.

We managed to net an average energy consumption rate of 6.2km/kWh in the Opel Combo-e across the three days when we had the van (all done without any cargo in tow).

With a 50kWh battery lying under the seats of the Opel Combo-e, we estimate that you should have no difficulty reaching the van's WLTP range of 293km between charges, even if it is burdened with a light load in the back.

And it's not as if we were stingy on the acceleration on the way to reaching this consumption rate.

Choose to drive the Opel Combo-e with some urgency and the van will reward. With a total 134bhp output and 260Nm of instantaneous torque to deploy, acceleration is always effortless, and you won't find any difficulty merging onto arterial roads and highways in this van.

Although admittedly, the overall sense of nimbleness from behind the wheel is blunted by the long travel that the accelerator pedal offers, as well as a slow steering rack.

A practical cabin and cargo space

And those aren't the only things that could be improved in the cabin of the Opel Combo-e.

The 5.0-inch infotainment screen here is also smaller than the 8.0-inch unit fitted within the Citroen e-Berlingo with which this Opel shares its underpinnings.

This size difference alone is no big compromise in a utilitarian vehicle, sure, but the fact that the Opel's unit uses an aged interface, and does not come with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto compatibility (for easy access to Google Maps) is sure to matter to drivers.

Thankfully, there is plenty else to redeem the Opel Combo-e here. There's convenient water bottle holders at the corners of the dashboard for example, and a mighty large parcel shelf at the top, perfect for storing away months of receipts and paperwork all out of sight. And the plastics here all feel like they could survive that bonus round in Street Fighter II.

The two seated here will also have no problem with available space, even if they are 1.8m tall, and will be kept cool when they return from on-site jobs by an air-conditioning system that is outright frigid.

And aft of this cabin, there's a total of 3,800 litres of space for cargo, which is right on par with the Citroen e-Berlingo, although it is still 1,000 litres short on cargo space offered in the Maxus e-Deliver 3.

A winning combo

At $126,500 (COE and CVES rebates included), the Opel Combo-e comes at a price that is right about par against the $71,999 listed price (which is before COE and the CVES rebates) of the Citroen e-Berlingo (all prices as of 12 October 2022).

If you can look past that aged infotainment system, the impressive ride and zippy drivetrain of the Opel Combo-e ought to be a stunning one-two that will appeal to many businesses and drivers.


Looking to go all-electric with your business logistics? There's also these options to choose from:

The Opel Vivaro-e comes with a larger 75kWh battery, and can ferry more cargo as well

There's also the Citroen e-Dispatch, that comes with a sizable battery and a practical interior

Or you can opt for a quiet and compact Citroen e-Berlingo

Alternatively, there's the Maxus e-Deliver 3, with its sizable cargo space and payload capacity