Toyota Proace Verso Electric Review 2026

Cars don’t get more functional than a van-based MPV. Take a big, metallic oblong, add a load of seats and windows… boom! Massive people carrier level, unlocked. It’s a tried-and-tested genre and a popular one. Sort of. Most perform duties at airport taxi ranks because few people consider them to be cool family cars. They're just a necessity, right? Find out more about one of the lesser-known choices with our full Toyota Proace Verso Electric review.

So, the Toyota Proace Verso Electric, eh? Ish. It’s a Stellantis-built vehicle really, which due to a commercial agreement, Toyota sells a rebadged version of.

Save for a few styling details it's basically identical to the Citroen e-SpaceTourer, the Peugeot E-Traveller and the Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric. Does that really matter? We think it does. Firstly, it’s weird sitting in a car with a Toyota badge on the steering wheel but nothing else around you looking or feeling remotely Toyota-like.

That sounds superficial until you consider the second point: it feels like because the Proace Verso Electric owes nothing to Toyota’s acclaimed engineering integrity and reliability reputation. As the HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index highlights, reliability isn't exactly a forte of any Stellantis brand.

On sale since the start of 2025 it's a battery-powered replacement for the previous diesel-engined Toyota Proace Verso. That’s right, modern electric motoring has reached its nine-seater, van-based MPV phase, which is a good thing, especially if you need to cart up to eight passengers around with low day-to-day running costs.

Costing from just under £46,000, the Toyota Proace Verso Electric isn't exactly cheap to buy, priced around the same ballpark is a mid-range Hyundai Ioniq 5, but among van-based MPVs it won't dent your bank balance as severely.

For context, the soon-to-be-discontinued Mercedes EQV is a much plusher, upmarket alternative, yet it costs twice as much as the Toyota. As glitzy as the EQV is, it's not twice as good as the Proace Verso Electric. Similarly showy, but far less spacious overall is the Volkswagen ID.Buzz — £60k is required to sit one on your driveway and that's for a five-seater version.

Okay, they're not exactly blue collar alternatives, so for reference take note that the Toyota's Ford E-Tourneo Custom rival is a whisker over £57,000 in its cheapest iteration.

An especially intriguing new alternative is the Kia PV5 Passenger priced from £33k, although for the time being, at least, it's solely available as a five-seater.

So what’s the Toyota Proace Verso Electric like? For a start, unlike most EVs it's slower than a teenager getting ready for school on a Monday morning. It’s also so heavy that you've more chance of that same teen making you a cuppa before they head out than you have of getting anywhere near its official 214-mile driving range figure. 

But, it is cheaper to run than its diesel-engined predecessor was and at urban speeds it’s also far more refined than before.

Its interior is pure Stellantis van, which is to say that almost all of it is moulded out of the same grade of hard, dark grey plastic, plus its infotainment system seems illogical in places. The driving position is less like a car’s and more like being served high tea at Windsor Castle with HM the King, given you're sat bolt upright and with no real opportunity to stretch your legs.

Two bodywork lengths are available for the Toyota, called Medium and Long. Eight is the standard seating configuration for the Medium, but the Long one can have seve, eight or nine depending on the specification. Both bodies have the same wheelbase with the Long's extra bodywork all at the back, providing even more cabin space and a significantly larger boot area.

All rear seats are adult-sized, so this is plainly a good way to accommodate a large group of grown-up, but the trade-off is a boot that, while huge by volume, is mostly height and not much depth should you opt for the Medium body. Also note that each side of the dual front passenger seat on the nine-seater is narrower than all of the other positions and isn't adjustable.

Accessing the Toyota's boot isn't always easy, either. Yes, its giant top-hinged tailgate swings up high to reveal an understandably van-like opening, but it requires plenty of free space behind it in order to open more than a few inches. Park too close to another car or a wall and you're scrabbling over the third row seats to get items in and out. 

It’s also quite frustrating to live with day-to-day because its sheer bulk makes it feel massive in standard parking spaces. Not so much with width — the sliding rear side doors help there — but with length. When you aren't finding somewhere convenient to park it, the Proace Verso's uncouth ride quality has you bouncing around like the front row at a ska gig. At least it's an improvement over the previous diesel versions.

All of these not-so-rosy points begs the question 'do you really need this much space inside?', because if not, you’ll be far better served with a seven-seat SUV, especially if the rearmost seats will only get occasional use.

They are far more plentiful, even if you just consider the electric ones, including the Peugeot E-5008, plus the close cousins that are the Hyundai Ioniq 9 and the Kia EV9, to name a few.

But, if you regularly need to carry lots of people and stuff over relatively short distances — either personally or professionally — and want to do so quietly and inexpensively, the Toyota is a perfectly acceptable way to do it, just as its clones are.

Your choice really boils down to which badge and you want on your Stellantis-made MPV. Or maybe which has the most appealing front-end styling, or which dealer is closest to you. It’s fair to say that you could take most of what you read here and apply it to the other versions, too.

While the Citroen, Peugeot and Vauxhall clones are available at over £10k less than the Toyota, in part thanks to the government's Electric Car Grant (ECG), those versions are also equipped with little more than the bare essentials.

There's one area where the advantage swings back the other way. It might not have the same engineering pedigree but the Toyota Proace Verso Electric is still available with a warranty package that can be valid for up to 10 years — that's a point of differentiation worth having for customers intending to keep hold of their car for the long-term.

Toyota Proace Verso Electric: Range and charging times

According to the official WLTP Combined cycle tests, the Proace Verso Electric's driving range is 214 miles. In the real world, getting remotely close to that is going to be a newsworthy achievement. If you're able to regularly extract 160 miles from each charge you can consider yourself to be doing well. 

Hung under the Toyota's floor is a 75kWh battery pack, in common with its Citroen-, Peugeot- and Vauxhall-branded facsimiles. Like those, it can be charged at 100kW when connected to a public DC charger, zapping it from a 5-80% state of charge in 45 minutes.

For most of your charging needs we strongly advise sticking to a 7.4kW AC domestic wallbox as this will be far more cost-effective, especially if you switch to an EV-friendly energy supplier. Plugged into this type of connection requires 11 hours and 20 minutes for a flat-to-full recharge.

If you’re only used to driving conventional cars, the novelty of driving a van-based one, such as the Toyota Proace Verso Electric, is suprisingly intoxicating.

Perched up on a properly high driver’s seat, steering wheel sat down at your knees and ostensibly vertical, plus a huge amount of bulk bouncing behind you. Aah, the bounce — it’s fun in the same way that crowd-surfing is... But you wouldn’t want to crowd-surf to work every day, right?

In fairness, the Proace Verso’s ride quality is among the more settled in the pantheon of these big MPVs, largely owing to the weight of its battery beneath the floor keeping it pinned down. But still, it’s nowhere near as settled and refined as any half-decent seven-seater SUV is and it gets more turbulent with speed.

The whole interior feels well-built, though, so at least when it’s bouncing it’s not also rattling itself to pieces, which is nice

The steering is light, which makes the Toyota feel relatively manoeuvrable and helps alleviate its 12.4m turning circle and a wheel which requires almost 3.5 turns to spin from lock-to-lock. You’ll find yourself saying 'it’s like driving a bus' a lot.

The Toyota Proace Verso Electric comes with a single electric drive system, regardless of the trim level of bodywork length.

Mounted beneath the bonnet, the motor's drive is sent to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission which is essentially used as you would a conventional automatic.

If at 136PS and 260Nm of torque its outputs sound modest, that's because they are. It isn’t a great deal for hauling around an unaerodynamic block of a car which weighs upwards of 2136kg — it's the same motor that can be found in the Vauxhall Corsa Electric where it's far peppier. Ultimately in the Toyota it the sort of zip that anyone familiar with EVs will have come to expect.

It crawls up to motorway speed and doesn’t seem to like being there very much, and overtaking anything is... well, just don’t try, would be our advice. For the record, the Proace Verso Electric's top speed is electronically capped at 80mph and while Toyota doesn't quote a 0-62mph time, Vauxhall claims 14.3 seconds for its mechanically identical Vivaro Life Electric.

That all said, the drive system's refinement is excellent and compared with the diesel-engined versions Toyota used to sell, it’s a night and day improvement.

Although the Toyota Proace Verso Electric hasn't specifically been crash-tested by the safety experts at Euro NCAP, the combustion-engined Peugeot Traveller-badged version was in 2015 when it scored a five-star rating. 

While its 87% score for adult occupant protection, 91% for children, 64% for pedestrians and 78% for its electronic driver aids were impressive at the time, the result has now lapsed given how long ago it was and because Euro NCAP's methodology has become more stringent.

That's not to say the Toyota's now unsafe, but if it were to be re-tested there's no guarantee its scores would reach the same levels.

More recently in 2025, the basic van design upon which the Proace Verso Electric is based was tested, albeit to a different set of parameters again — that version achieved a four-star rating.

Still, the Proace Verso Electric has driver and passenger airbags, plus curtain airbags on higher trim levels, while eight- and nine-seater models have six Isofix child seat anchor points.

Standard safety features found on the Toyota include adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring and autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, although these are now mandated features anyway.

Further safety kit options include rear cross-traffic alert and a parking camera package. 

It’s ot an ideal towing car, but if you must the Toyota Proace Verso Electric will haul a braked trailer with a maximum capacity of 1000kg.

Practicality is the Toyota Proace Verso Electric’s main strength. Modular seating, sliding rear side doors and a massive boot are all attributes that make it a good choice for large families or airport taxi operators. At 4981mm in length for the Medium body and up to 5333mm for the Long, you would expect that.

The luggage compartment comes with the usual trade-off for a van-based MPV. It's huge by volume, but stifled a bit because the floor space isn’t vast. That applies more to the Medium version whose 507 litre boot , when loaded to window sill height, is shallow from the bumper to the back of the third-row seats.

Proace Verso Electric Longs have much more volume at 912 litres measured to the same parameters, togther with a much bigger floor surface area. Of course, in either version, if you’re not carrying a full load of people behind you there’s plenty of space in the main cabin to put luggage without removing any seats.

Every seat folds down and you can remove all of them behind the front row to create more luggage space. Loaded to the ceiling the Medium's maximum carrying potential is 2700 litres, the Long up to 3300 litres. Nice. 

Up front the Toyota's less practical than you might assume. Its the glove compartment is small and there’s no centre console storage facility between the front seats of seven- and eight-seater models.

There’s a little underseat storage but the door pockets are very low down making them unsuitable for storing anything that you might want to grab while driving, such as a handful of peanut M&Ms. Because the cupholders are moulded into the dash top, it’s a stretch to grab your coffee. Small compromises but real ones all the same.

'Hardwearing' is the euphemism you’re most likely to use when describing the Toyota Proace Verso Electric’s cabin. Or, if you’re fancy, you could say it’s 'rooted in its commercial vehicle origins'.

Ultimately, it's functional at best. It's all hard, dark grey plastics as far as the eye can see, all far less plush than the majority of what you would find inside the Mercedes EQV. Even the rubber flooring of cheaper Proace Versos doesn't seem to fit properly. Sheesh.

Of course, this means it’s difficult to scuff or stain the interior and it all generally feels very well put together. The panel gaps are consistent, the buttons and switches feel sturdy, while the rear seats have robust mechanisms for folding and removal.

Multiple USB and 12V sockets are distributed across the three rows of seats, with roof-mounted rear airvents and climate control adjusters are standard on all specification levels.

Nothing in the Stellantis portfolio seems to have a properly nailed infotainment system, with a less intuitive arrangement than rivals packages — because of its heritage, the Toyota Proace Verso Electric is similarly lumbered.

Although it has some Toyota branding baked in, it’s essentially the same.. and it’s all a bit fiddly as a result.

Physical air-con controls and an audio volume knob are both welcome, but the screen resolution and the software's responsiveness feel a couple of generations old compared with slicker rivals' systems. 

Many of its foibles can simply be bypassed by using the standard wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity.

Prices for the Toyota Proace Verso Electric appear to be slightly haphazard due to the mix of trim levels, body lengths and seat numbers.

Entry-point to the range is the eight-seater Icon Medium at £45,895 with the nine-seater Long version of the same trim level priced at £46,595.

Moving up to the eight-seater Proace Verso Electric Design Medium ensures the interior's a little less austere for £49,395, with a heft step up to the plusher-still Design Premium Long, also with eight seats, at £53,895. Topping the line-up is the seven-seater Excel Long at £55,995.

Compared with its Stellantis-badged clones, the Toyota looks curiously more expensive. Some of that's accounted for by equipment differences, but also because the least expensive versions of the Citroen e-SpaceTourer, Peugeot E-Traveller and Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric are discounted thanks to the government's Electric Car Grant (ECG), starting at £35,495, £35,490 and £35,400 respectively.

Of the alternatives, the five-seater-only (for now) Kia PV5 Passenger starts at £32,995, the eight-passenger Ford E-Tourneo Custom is upwards of £57,082, while the cheapest five-seater Volkswagen ID.Buzz is £60,005.

Soon to go off sale, the priciest choice is the seven-seater Mercedes EQV — only one version remains available and it will set you back £92,255.

Running a Toyota Proace Verso Electric will cost a pittance if you predominantly charge at home and switch to an energy supplier with an inexpensive off-peak rate for EVs — doing so could see a full charge cost around £5.25.

Most versions also escape the imposition of the Expensive Car Supplement which is only applicable to those costing £50,000 or over. At current rates, that negates an additional VED total cost of £2125 between years two and six of ownership.

For company car drivers, all versions are potentially attractive as EVs attract only a 3% Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) taxation levy.

Maintenance and servicing costs will be reasonable, owing to the relative simplicity of the electric motor, while brake wear is generally lower with EVs as the regenerative action takes much of the burden.

Insurance costs are quite high, with the Proace Verso Electric sitting in the 30s dependent on trim level, on the 1-50 grouping scale. That grading is less because the Toyota is desirable to thieves, funnily enough) but more because the van-derived parts, such as its sliding doors, its massive body panels and its bulky tailgate, are more expensive to repair and replace.

There are four trim levels available across the Toyota Proace Verso Electric range — Icon, Design, Design Premium and Excel.

Although its body is available in two sizes — Medium and Long — only the Icon trim level can be paired with either of them. Design grade is only available with the Medium body, while Design Premium and Excel are exclusive to the Long.

Standard features for the Toyota Proace Verso Electric Icon include:

• 17-inch steel wheels with 5-triple-spoke plastic wheel trims
• Automatic LED headlights with automatic main beam
• Front fog lights
• Rear parking sensors
• Heated windscreen washer jets
• Acoustic noise reduction layer within front door windows
• 70% dark-tinted rear windows and tailgate glass
• Electrically adjustable, folding and heated door mirrors
• 10.0-inch digital instrument display
• 10.0-inch multimedia touchscreen
• DAB radio
• Toyota Touch 2 with Go integral navigation system
• Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity
• Eight-speaker audio system
• Heated driver's seat with armrest and manual lumbar adjustment
• Front passenger seat with armrest — Medium version only
• First-row two-seater passenger bench seat — Long version only
• Second-row three-seater bench seat
• Third-row three-seater bench seat
• Icon grade-specific Dark Grey fabric upholstery
• Heated, leather-wrapped three-spoke steering wheel
• Plastic floor covering
• Manual air conditioning with vents for all three rows
• Electric front windows
• Chilled upper glovebox
• Auto-dimming interior rear-view mirror
• Electronic parking brake
• Cruise control
• Hill-start Assist Control

Additional equipment for the Toyota Proace Verso Electric Design includes:

• 17-inch 5-double-spoke machined-face alloy wheels
• Front, side and rear parking sensors
• Keyless unlocking/locking and starting/stopping
• Opening tailgate glass hatch
• Toyota Skyview panoramic glazed roof
• Wireless smartphone charging pad
• Rail-mounted, sliding and reclining second- and third-row bench seats
• Design grade-specific Dark Grey fabric upholstery
• Front seatback-mounted fold-up tables
• Automatic climate control
• Rear sliding door-mounted interior roller blinds
• Lidded dashboard top storage cubby
• Rigid luggage area cover
• Blind Spot Monitor

Extra kit included with the Toyota Proace Verso Electric Design Premium comprises:

• Electrically sliding rear side doors with kick activation
• 10-speaker audio system
• Heated and electrically adjustable front seats with driver's seat memory, massage function, armrest and manual lumbar adjustment
• Black leather upholstery
• Carpet floor covering

With the highest level of equipment, standard items for the Toyota Proace Verso Electric Excel include:

• 90% dark-tinted rear windows and tailgate glass
• Reversing camera
• Rail-mounted, sliding and reclining second-row individual captain's chairs with armrests
• Rear passengers' rail-mounted pop-up table
• Adaptive cruise control with full stop functionality