In search of an EV that will take three child seats

Is there an electric vehicle that can accommodate three child seats across the rear bench? Most of the cars I’ve looked at have three spaces on the rear seat, but they’re not wide enough to actually t three child seats onto them.

If there isn’t a pure electric vehicle that can do this, which is the best hybrid for doing the same job?

Chris Menzies-trull WHAT CAR? SAYS…

You’re right: there aren’t many fully electric vehicles that can accommodate three child car seats in the rear.

At present, there are only two models that can do this: the Tesla Model S luxury saloon and the Audi E-tron luxury SUV, which is as wide as the conventionally powered Audi Q7 and is therefore big enough to fit three seats across the second row.

It’s also worth considering one of the plug-in hybrid versions of the larger SUVS. Officially, the Audi Q7 60 TFSIE can travel for up to 25 miles between recharges, and although it doesn’t have the two third-row seats you’ll find in other Q7 models, you can get three child car seats into the second row. There’s also the BMW X5 xdrive45e, which can cover up to 54 miles of pure electric driving, based on the official WLTP test.

More models like these will be going on sale later this year and in 2021, including a plug-in hybrid version of the Peugeot 5008, which is a really practical family vehicle that can seat seven in its current guise and has three individual, sliding seats in its second row.

We get asked this question regularly, so we’ve written an online round-up of how good our favourite cars are at accommodating three child seats in the second and third rows. You can read the full feature at whatcar.com/advice/buying/bestcars-for-three-child-car-seats.

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