Fiat E-Doblo electric van review (2023)

• Smooth and quiet to drive
• Excellent urban performance
• Driving modes make drastic difference

The Fiat E-Doblo’s single motor and battery combo is nothing new, but it is an excellent setup that works wonderfully well, particularly around town.

Fiat E-Doblo power and performance

The motor in the Fiat E-Doblo is a, by now, very familiar 100kW (or 136hp) one, which is teamed up with a 50kWh battery pack that sits underneath the loading bay. This makes it marginally the most powerful model in the Doblo range, but it is limited to 80mph so this doesn’t translate to performance in that sense.

In fact, you won’t get access to all of that power the majority of the time. There are three driving settings, which restrict the output in all but ‘Power’ mode – Eco limits you to 82hp and Normal only allows you 110hp. The latter is what the van defaults to whenever you start it up, so you will have to make a conscious decision to get that extra boost of performance.

The majority of the time it isn’t needed – the E-Doblo is capable of nipping away from lights and around town without ever feeling like it is struggling to keep up with urban traffic. Power mode will take you from 0-62mph in just over 11 seconds, but the immediacy of acceleration is more important than this sprint. It is far more useful for a quick overtake or for tackling a steep hill with a heavy payload.

The mode of note is, perhaps confusingly, activated by a separate button, marked ‘B’ and sitting beneath the electronic parking brake. This notably increases the amount of regenerative braking, which helps slow you down simply by lifting your foot off the pedal. It won’t take you to a standstill but it will make crawling in traffic that bit easier.

Comfort and refinement

The E-Doblo is a smooth, quiet and settled vehicle at all speeds up to the national limit, with the majority of wind and road noise being kept to a low level. Inevitably the lack of insulation in the rear half of a commercial vehicle means it is noisier than a passenger car, which has seats and carpets to soak up road and wind noise, but it isn’t far off.

The suspension is excellent, too, although it is a little more settled when there is a payload in the back – when empty it can feel a little jittery, but it deals admirably with the usual pockmarked surfaces of the UK’s winter roads and the various speed bumps around our towns. This firmness means it keeps its body comparatively settled around corners, too.

Fiat E-Doblo real-world driving range

We, and thousands of buyers, have had a fair bit of experience driving these small electric vans now, and they are all happiest in the environment that they are most designed for – around town. There the range is more likely to treat you best and be true to its predictions.

Head onto higher-speed roads and the range is more likely to be scrubbed off at a faster rate, even more so if you have a hefty weight in the back. From experience with this group of vans, they work out about 50% as efficient if you spend all your time driving quickly. They aren’t yet all things to all users.

• Smart cockpit
• Cramped for three
• Identical to siblings

Fiat might have been able to let its designers loose on the front end of the Doblo, but the cabin is very familiar to anyone who has been in one of these small vans before. The styling, switchgear, technology and layout is identical to the Berlingo, Combo etc, just with a Fiat badge in the middle of the steering wheel.

What is different about the electric Fiat Doblo’s cabin?

While there is little to set it apart from the other Stellantis vans, there are some differences between the electric version and the standard models. Namely the instrument cluster, which has a digital display and contains the sort of information you would want to know on an electric vehicle. It can also show the navigation directions, putting them closer to your natural eye movements and saving you having to take your attention further from the road to glance at the central screen.

The shape of the interior is much as it is in the standard vans though, which means that there is still a large chunk of the dashboard encroaching into the cabin, even though there is no physical gear level on there. This is no real issue on the two-seater model but it will restrict legroom for the middle seat passenger if you have the bench seat specified.

The compartments around the cabin is otherwise good, with an overhead area, some secure storage in the form of a glovebox and some small cupholders up on the top of the dash.

• Strong running costs
• Small premium for higher trims
• Longer warranty available but at extra cost

Electricity is not guaranteed to be a shortcut to running a van on the cheap, such is the state of prices at the moment, but it should still work out notably cheaper than diesel.

The initial purchase could well be aided by the fact that there is still a government grant for electric vans, although the E-Doblo is still notably more expensive in terms of list price than the non-electric versions – by almost 50% in some cases.

Fiat E-Doblo servicing

The servicing intervals on the E-Doblo are set at two years or 25,000 miles, although the first service is due after one year or 12,500 miles. This is pretty much the same as the diesel van’s servicing schedule, but petrol buyers (the Doblo is the only version to offer a petrol in the UK right now) will have to get their van seen to twice as often, so the E-Doblo should work out cheaper on this front.

Fiat E-Doblo warranty

The standard warranty on the Fiat E-Doblo runs for just three years and covers you for up to 100,000 miles in that time. The battery, however, is guaranteed to provide 70% of its capacity for eight years or 100,000 miles.

There is an extended warranty available on the E-Doblo, which comes under Fiat’s 555 Peace of Mind deal. This brings you five years of warranty, five years of servicing and five years of roadside assistance. It is an optional extra, though, which means it is not as appealing as Toyota’s comprehensive 10-year warranty offer.

Fiat E-Doblo standard equipment

You get a decent amount of equipment on the Fiat Doblo range generally, which is then replicated on the electric version.

The two trims are Standard and Primo, with highlights listed below.

Standard:

• Eight-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, DAB, Bluetooth and satellite navigation
• Air conditioning
• Cruise control and speed limiter
• Electric parking brake
• Automatic lights and wipers
• Full-height bulkhead
• Twin sliding doors
• Single passenger seat

Primo:

• Height adjustable driver’s seat
• Rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera in rear-view mirror
• Passenger bench seat with writing table
• Magic cargo load-through hatch
• Icon Pack

Fiat is also bundling up a selection of options into packs, to make choosing them easier. The packs are as follows:

Icon Pack

• Body coloured bumpers, side protectors and door rail, gloss black door mirror covers
• Wheel covers

Worksite Pack

• Raised ground clearance
• Engine protection
• Mud and snow tyres
• Grip control
• Spare wheel

Freight Pack

• Four stowage hooks
• LED lighting in loading bay
• 12V and 230V sockets in cargo area
• Plastic load-bay flooring cover

Several of the packs aren’t available with Primo trim, and there is some doubling up of equipment so many will not seem necessary.

The Fiat Doblo is part of a huge group of small vans, which means that any recall problems should have been ironed out by the time it arrives in the UK in 2023. There have been a few recalls on the sibling vans, but these won’t apply to the Doblo as it goes on sale after these have been sorted.

• Basic standard kit
• Optional pack adds more

Given the hefty purchase price for the E-Doblo it is a real shame that you still have to head to the options list to add extra safety equipment. Vans are starting to add this as standard, slowly but surely, but the small Fiat has not done so.

You get an alarm as standard, but only the one airbag. Disappointingly, airbags are not even included in any of the packs that Fiat has bundled up for you. If you do add more then you get a passenger airbag and a side and curtain ‘bag on both sides.

Fiat also offers a good amount of assistance technology, which is available in the optional packs. This brings active lane assist, speed sign recognition, advanced emergency braking, attention assist and automatic lights and wipers.