2022 bikesales Bike of the Year: Peugeot Expert support van

For the recent 2022 bikesales Bike of the Year (BOTY) mega-test, Peugeot Australia kindly supplied us with its 2022 Peugeot Expert to serve in the important role of support vehicle.

The largest test of its type in Australia, BOTY saw the bikesales entourage head for the Victorian township of Bright, for a full week of intensive testing and filming throughout the surrounding High Country.

It's a big affair, this year involving up to 15 participants, and so it demands a capable and practical support van, which we found this year in the 2022 Peugeot Expert Pro LWB Auto.

The Peugeot Expert’s roles were many, from carting the team’s gear from Melbourne to Bright, to carrying a range of drinks, snacks, tools, spare fuel and more. And it was always on standby to transport any stricken motorcycles over the course of the week.

Needless to say, BOTY is a thorough shakedown of any support van’s talents, from load lugging to on-road dynamics.

This year, however, there was an unplanned, added twist to the support van's role: we were to put the Peugeot Expert’s safety credentials to the test in spectacular fashion…

The Peugeot Expert spans three variants (City, Pro, Premium), two wheelbases (SWB, LWB), and two transmissions (six-speed manual, eight-speed auto).

The auto adds $3339 over the manual in Expert Pro LWB form while all six variants are in a front-drive format and adopt the same Euro 5 engine in the same rating: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel, good for a claimed 110kW at 4000rpm and 370Nm at 2000rpm.

Priced from $43,397 plus on-roads (Peugeot Expert City SWB manual) to $53,265 plus on-roads (Peugeot Expert Premium LWB Auto), our test vehicle is the mid-spec 2022 Peugeot Expert Pro LWB Auto which, with its Artense Grey premium paint ($690), comes in at $50,765 plus on-road costs. Those prices include GST.

The Peugeot Expert keeps things relatively simple. All variants feature twin sliding side doors and rear glazed barn doors.

There are six tie-down anchor points in the cargo bay along with two overhead lights and a 12V power outlet. A full metal bulkhead with window is standard across the range; Premium models get an additional load-through flap in the bulkhead to accommodate longer items.

Up front, the seating is also identical across all variants, with a six-way driver’s seat (with adjustable armrest) complemented by a twin-seat passenger bench with storage space below. The fabric upholstery throughout the range features ‘leather effect’ panels.

Our test van has auto (halogen) lights and wipers and rides on 16-inch steel wheels. Premium models get 17-inch alloys, along with extras like colour-coded bumpers, fog lights, LED daytime running lights, and keyless entry and starting.

The Peugeot Expert is backed by a five-year, 200,000-kilometre factory warranty and five years of roadside assistance, while service intervals are pegged at every 12 months or 20,000 kilometres, whichever comes first.

Peugeot Australia offers three-year and five-year capped-price service programs, totaling $1200 and $2100 respectively.

The Peugeot Expert has not been assessed by Australia’s ANCAP vehicle safety program and was last assessed by Europe’s NCAP program back in 2012. However, it covers off most of the key active and passive safety elements, albeit with a couple of omissions.

Staples like four airbags, stability control and antilock brakes are complemented by forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking, but the Peugeot Expert misses out on blind spot monitoring and lane departure warning.

On the final morning of our week-long bikesales Bike of the Year extravaganza, we inadvertently put the Peugeot Expert’s safety credentials to the test when, dazzled by glare and scrabbling for sunglasses, the van strayed from its lane and promptly slipped down an embankment, before glancing off the side of a tree.

The sight of that tree rushing up is one this scribe will never forget, but the side airbag triggered on impact and ultimately did its job, allowing me to walk away unscathed.

Would lane departure warning have averted the accident? Possibly, though it’s impossible to know. The accident occurred through no fault of the vehicle but, in any case, the van’s structural integrity and side airbag made all the difference, and for that I’m incredibly thankful.

The 2022 Peugeot Expert Pro comes with a pragmatic mix of tech to make life on the road that bit more comfortable.

The 7-inch infotainment touchscreen is basic, a little fiddly, and lacks embedded sat-nav, but it does come with (wired) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The screen also shows the (standard) rear-view camera display, which although less than crisp does offer predictive guides and flips to a handy top-down view when the rear parking sensors trigger. There are no front parking sensors, however.

There’s a standard key for entry and starting, and while our test vehicle features adaptive cruise control, our test vehicle wasn't quick to modify its progress when approaching a significantly slower vehicle – on a couple of occasions the forward collision warning alarm sounded and I had to manually intervene with the brakes.

The instrumentation is clean and clear, however, though the speedo does feature European graduations, highlighting increments of 30, 50, 70km/h etc.

Air-conditioning is standard and, with the bulkhead in place, very effective.

Under the Peugeot Expert bonnet is a 1997cc in-line four-cylinder turbo-diesel said to produce 110kW at 4000rpm and 370Nm at 2000rpm. A Euro 5 unit that requires AdBlue, the engine is mated in this case to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The entry-level Peugeot Expert City is only available in a short wheelbase with six-speed manual, while the Peugeot Expert Pro is available in a short wheelbase with eight-speed auto, or in a long wheelbase with either the manual or auto. The two Premium variants (short or long wheelbase) are auto only.

The Peugeot Expert Pro LWB Auto boasts an ADR Combined Cycle fuel economy of 6.3L/km. With a 70-litre fuel capacity, that equates with a safe fuel range of over 1000 kilometres.

During our time with the Peugeot Expert we saw fuel usage fluctuate from 6.3L/100km on the Hume Highway up to 7.9L/100km over a day spent on the steep grades of Mount Hotham. While the load was relatively modest – probably a few hundred kilograms at most – the Peugeot Expert certainly appears quite frugal across a range of roles and conditions.

Vans aren’t perhaps renowned for their on-road acumen, but we found the Peugeot Expert to be an impressive performer both with and without a load. Much of that is likely down to Peugeot’s modular ‘EMP-2’ SUV platform, which underpins the Expert, along with Peugeot's smaller Partner sibling and a range of passenger cars.

Most noticeable is just now nicely the Peugeot Expert drives when unladen. While the suspension is a touch brittle over smaller road imperfections, it soaks up the bumps nicely and even sharp speed bumps are soaked up with impressive compliance. It’s far from harsh, which isn't what you would typically expect of an LCV.

On the flipside, with some weight in place the van settles a little further yet handles the bends with flair. The Expert displays very little lateral roll, even when pushing on through sharper alpine hairpins, and generally maintains a high degree of composure.

The road manners are matched to some pleasingly spirited poke from the four-pot oiler, which has a chunky midrange. At 100km/h in eighth the engine is ticking along at just 1500rpm, so it’s plenty relaxed on long hauls, but there’s nice response when you plant your foot and in manual mode the paddle shifters flick through the gears with haste.

The steering is benign yet gives adequate feedback, but the disc brakes, while progressive and powerful, are a little soft in the initial part of the stroke. Still, no qualms whatsoever when it comes to outright power.

Noise, vibration and harshness are subdued too. Engine noise is muted but there is a bit of road noise that permeates the cargo floor, despite the full bulkhead (a protective feature for which I was supremely thankful when things turned pear-shaped). But there’s no unwanted vibration worth mentioning and the cabin is free of squeaks and rattles.

As a front-drive vehicle the Peugeot Expert’s turning circle isn’t miniscule (12.4 metres), but the light touch required at the wheel means traversing tight spaces isn’t the chore it otherwise might be.

The Peugeot Expert strikes a balance between car-like comfort and LCV utility. The cab is the usual mix of hard plastics and the steering wheel – completely devoid of integrated controls – feels hard in the hands. But hey, with some quality rubber floor mats underfoot, this is a cab that should prove both easy to clean and durable.

The rotary dial transmission takes some getting used to but it works well enough. I would have appreciated some lumbar support for my lower back but was happy to at least have the adjustable armrest.

The volume knob for the infotainment system is on the wrong side (a left-hook throwback). And while there’s a 12V outlet and a USB-A port beneath the infotainment unit, the nearby tray isn’t quite big enough for a typical smartphone (at least not with a power cable plugged in).

At the business end, the Peugeot Expert has good access to its load bay via twin sliding doors and rear barn-style doors. There’s room between the wheel arches to accommodate a standard Australian pallet, but this will need to go in via the rear doors because the side apertures are a bit too tight (930mm wide at their shortest point). In any case, barn doors are better than a top-hinge tailgate when it comes to forklift access.

The non-slip rubber mat was great for ensuring contents stayed put during Bike of the Year but could do with cut-outs that preserve clear access to tie-down anchor points.

Numbers? In long-wheelbase form this Peugeot Expert is said to offer 6.3 cubic metres of load volume, along with a payload of 1357kg. The load bay measures 2862mm long by 1638mm wide (1258mm between its wheel arches), with an internal ceiling height we measured at 1340mm and a load floor height of 560mm.

This variant’s braked towing limit is 1800kg, but we didn't tow anything during this review.

Many vans are nondescript vehicles – the humble ‘white box on wheels’. The Peugeot Expert, however, with its European styling, offers a smart look on the road that some savvy buyers will use to sharpen their firm’s image.

Add in impressive driving dynamics, healthy economy, handy load-lugging ability and a sensible mix of safety and tech features, and the Peugeot Expert stacks up nicely for anyone looking beyond the Japanese and Korean mainstream.

The Peugeot Expert was a faithful companion on our bikesales Bike of the Year test, and a van that ultimately that saved the author from potentially serious injury when it mattered most.

Price: $50,765 (plus on-road costs, including GST)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 110kW/370Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 6.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 165g/km (ADR Combined or WLTP if overseas model)
Safety rating: Not tested