TESTER’S NOTES
It’s possible – tempting, even – to read too much into the news that the ICE Citroën Berlingo is back on sale just over a year after it was pulled in favour of the electric ë-Berlingo.
Another hint of backlash against the EV revolution? A shout joining the chorus of those who want EU law to allow for alternative ways to zero tailpipe emissions? Or just, as the tech bros will say, an example of boomers failing to get with the programme? Probably a hint of the first and second and not so much of the third, for me. Not hugely significant on its own but of interest and worth remembering – a momentary ripple on the glidepath towards electrification.
One point worth remembering: for some people, convenience looks like filling up this windowed-and-seated van every few weeks rather than plugging it in every night. And another: most people know how to run their lives and are quite capable of seeing what different types of motoring look like and cost, better than being dictated how to see it.
You can order the £25,465 (diesel) and petrol (£25,590) Berlingos now, before production starts in May.
The Berlingo – with a big frontal area limiting its aerodynamic efficiency and a high chance it will do either many miles as a company-owned work wagon or not many miles as a privately owned occasional workhorse – isn’t necessarily the obvious type of car to go electric.
Now, I like driving whether there are tailpipe emissions or not. But I’ve yakked on here before about making sure there are affordable and easy-to-use cars on the road a few years down the line. The ICE Berlingo looks like an example of precisely that, so this development is fine by me.
■ An unlikely source of help for Ukraine has emerged in Latvia, where it has been made possible for the authorities to seize cars owned by those convicted of drink driving.
Instead of sending them (the cars, not the drivers) to the crusher or selling them, the authorities are loading appropriate ones onto car transporters and sending them to Ukraine for donation to the cause.
As well as the tanks and weapons the Ukrainians so badly need, there’s a shortage in places of cars to get about in. I reckon 4x4s are especially handy.
Apparently, Latvia has one of the worst drink-driving rates in Europe, an estimated 3500 cases every year, so there’s plenty of stock. The BBC reports that two dozen cars a week will be handed to a charity convoy.
Now, I do know that some British organisations have ferried rugged 4x4s and pick-up tru
