Opel’s new midsized Grandland SUV range has a headline-grabbing all-electric model in its midst, but you can still get it with a regular internal-combustion drivetrain, although the German company has fitted it with 48-volt mild-hybrid electric vehicle (MHEV) technology in order to save some fuel. Sold in the same SC, Elegance and GS specifications as the Grandland Electric, the 1.2-litre PureTech MHEV is a more conventional opponent for the likes of the Ford Kuga, Citroen C5 Aircross, Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage and many more besides. We’ve driven the car near Opel’s (kind of) home city of Frankfurt to see what it’s like.
How much is the Opel Grandland MHEV in Ireland?
Irish prices for the Grandland Electric haven’t been confirmed as yet, but we do know how much the Grandland MHEV will be - it begins at €40,995 for an SC, then rises €2,000 for each trim walk, from SC to Elegance, and then Elegance to GS. Equipment levels are impressive across the board, as even an SC comes with adaptive cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, keyless entry and go, dual-zone climate control, LED headlights and 19-inch alloy wheels, among more, with Elegance and GS upping the luxury count from there.
What’s does the outside of the Opel Grandland MHEV look like?
Handsome and inoffensive, the Opel Grandland is unlikely to put many buyers off in the showroom. Those wanting the glitziest illuminated ‘Vizor’ front grille of the car will need to opt for the flagship GS model, as the other two grades get regular, non-lit black Vizors, but the styling of this SUV is clean, proportional... and, admittedly, not massively memorable. There are competitors in this class which have more identity and kerb appeal than the Vauxhall, although we will say it’s considerably nicer to look at than the model it replaces, so the designers have undoubtedly made aesthetic improvements.
A look inside the Opel Grandland MHEV
Again, like the exterior, the interior of the Grandland is a vast improvement on what went before and avoids the old Opel trap of rendering every surface on show in dark charcoal grey tones, making for a dull and gloomy interior. There’s definitely more light-and-shade contrasts in the new car, which is nice, and the material quality is high, but once again it’s not a cabin that’s particularly daring for design, or as memorable as those found in the likes of the Peugeot 3008, Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage. Some will like this lack of ostentatious showiness, of course, and the bonus of the Grandland is that there are still some useful physical buttons for various controls.
Also, just as we found in the Electric model, space onboard this Grandland MHEV is excellent. There’s plenty of room in the back of the SUV for taller passengers to get comfortable, while the 550-litre boot is a big cargo bay fitted to a vehicle of this class and size. So, it’s going to prove to be a practical machine for families, that’s for sure.
The Opel Grandland MHEV’s on-board technology
Base-spec SC and mid-grade Elegance cars have two 10-inch digital displays, one for the instrument cluster and the other for the main infotainment, which is enabled with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. For those wanting the larger, nav-equipped 16-inch infotainment screen, then GS is the trim level of choice - and you also get the wireless smartphone charging pad plus ‘Pixel Box’ housing in the flagship Grandland MHEV. We sound the same note of caution here as we did in the Electric model, however; that 16-inch screen is super-wide and rather shallow, so it’s not ideal for showing mapping when you’ve got a destination plumbed into the car.
Further, the fancy 50,000-plus LED Matrix headlights, which are widely touted as a selling point of the Grandland range as a whole, are also only reserved for the GS, so technophiles will need to shell out a little more money if they want their Opel SUV to be at the cutting edge of industry standards.
How big is the Opel Grandland MHEV?
Both the MHEV and the Electric versions of the Opel Grandland are the same length (4,650mm) and width (1,905mm across the body, 1,934mm with the mirrors folded and then 2,108mm with the mirrors out), but there are differences in height, wheelbase (the distance between the axles), weight and towing capability. Due to the hybrid having less advanced torsion-beam rear suspension than the Electric’s multilink set-up, the wheelbase is 10mm shorter (at 2,784mm) on this 1.2-litre petrol electric car, while it also rides 4mm lower than the Electric at 1,657mm of overall height. Incredibly, the MHEV is a whopping 532kg lighter than the Electric, although it has marginally less towing capability with 1,100kg of braked trailer being its limit (100 kilos less than the EV). However, the turning circles are an identical and suitably tight 10.9 metres.
Driving the Opel Grandland MHEV
A familiar Stellantis drivetrain is fitted to the Grandland MHEV, in which the long-serving 1.2-litre PureTech three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine is deployed in a 136hp/230Nm state of tune. Adding up to 28hp and plenty of instant torque to proceedings is a small electric motor, fed by a tiny 432Wh battery pack (i.e. 0.432kWh). Opel says the car can run on electric power alone right up to 135km/h, although it also claims just a 1km electric range for the vehicle - yet it’ll purportedly do 50 per cent of its urban driving without needing to resort to firing up the engine.
Realistically, Opel wants customers to focus on the Electric model as the primary propulsion choice of the new line-up, but we preferred the way the MHEV drives. It has less sophisticated suspension than the zero-emission SUV, but its vastly lower weight means the damping can be softer and suppler, and as a result the Grandland petrol provides a more comfortable ride, more of the time. It doesn’t seem to be any worse for rolling refinement, either, with well-suppressed tyre and wind noise at all road speeds.
It's not particularly quick, of course, lacking for torque and occasionally sounding strained if you attempt to rev it out, but there’s enough performance in the Grandland MHEV that keeping up with regular traffic flow is no hardship at all, while the e-DCT6 gearbox has been so vastly improved from our first experience with it in a Citroen C5 Aircross last year that it’s hard not to think it’s an all-new transmission entirely. It can still get caught out from time to time if you deliberately try to trip it up, but mostly it shifts smoothly and quickly, and maximises the Opel’s 230Nm of torque to good effect.
The handling is fine, without being enjoyable. Light steering and above average body control team up with lots of grip and traction to make the Grandland assured in the bends if nothing more. But then, midsized SUVs like this one are not expected to be paragons of handling excellence, so the way the hybrid drives overall is really very likeable indeed, and crucially, largely effortless, for a family wagon like this.
How economical is the Opel Grandland MHEV?
Opel quotes 5.5 litres/100km (51.4mpg) for the Grandland MHEV, and though we couldn’t quite match that on our test drive, we have no doubt you could achieve such numbers on a longer, steadier cruise. The real benefit of the MHEV is you get a real-world range well in excess of 500km on a full tank, and while it’ll never be as cheap to run as the Electric model if you have a home charger for the latter, its 124g/km CO2 output does at least mean the Grandland MHEV is only €200 a year for motor tax.
The reasons you’d buy an Opel Grandland MHEV
Larger and grander (if you’ll forgive the pun) than its predecessor, the new Opel Grandland is a better SUV in every respect and a capable contender in a marketplace absolutely thick with competitors. The problem is, as we found with the Electric version, is that it doesn’t immediately vault itself to the top of the class - there’s nothing particularly about the Grandland MHEV that makes it stand out, although its technology and interior space deserve to be admired. Happily, the MHEV model drives tidily for what it is and so if you’re after a no-nonsense family vehicle, the Opel Grandland with the 1.2 petrol-electric powertrain could be the car for you.
Ask us anything about the Opel Grandland MHEV
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