OLD NAME NEW TECH (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Vauxhall's new-era Frontera has been designed around EV power. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 51

With this Frontera Electric, the Griffin brand brings you a small electric Vauxhall that really could be used as a second family car. In the kind of way a Corsa Electric probably never could. The engineering here is shared with a Citroen e-C3 Aircross but delivered with a very Vauxhall vibe.

Backgroundword count: 123

If you can remember the crude turn-of-the-century Vauxhall Frontera SUV, you might find the concept of a 'Frontera'-badged electric crossover a curious one. But the modern-era Frontera model line is a very different proposition, developed as the Vauxhall version of the second generation Citroen C3 Aircross - or, as in this case, the e-C3 Aircross. The mainstream EV drivetrain here includes the smallest battery pack available from the Stellantis Group parts bin, but if you're only looking for a second family car for suburban duties, that might not matter much. What'll matter much more is that, impressively, Vauxhall has managed to put this Frontera EV on sale for significantly less than the equivalent Hybrid version. At last, electric cars are getting more accessible.

Driving Experienceword count: 380

The Vauxhall / Opel engineers designed the Frontera primarily around an EV drivetrain, so that's what we chose to try. Unlike with Stellantis battery-powered models built on the fractionally larger EMP2 platform (like Vauxhall's Mokka Electric), this set-up doesn't come with selectable drive modes - there isn't even an 'Eco' button, which will be a relief if, like us, this is the sort of thing you're always forgetting to engage on EVs. There aren't any brake regen settings either - except a rather counter-intuitive one; this 'C' (for 'Comfort') setting on the gear selector. Curiously, this provides less brake regen (0.8m/s) rather than more (ordinary 'D' gives you 1.2m/s). The electric drivetrain comes in two flavours. We tried it with the base 44kWh battery, a rather small package of cells for a lower-order compact family car which, predictably, returns a very modest range figure of 186 miles that we got nowhere near during our time with this car. If that's a problem and you still want a Frontera Electric, then you'll have to find quite a slug more for a version with the larger 54kWh battery, which boosts range up to a more usable 253 miles between charges. Both variants use the same 113PS front-mounted motor, which you might hope in a relatively light little EV would make performance feel quite sprightly, even though pulling power is limited to a modest 124Nm. It doesn't. Apart from arthritic little EV citycars and a few big under-powered electric MPVs, we can't remember driving a battery-powered model with less zip, though the rest to 62mph time of 13 seconds will doubtless be quite sufficient for the suburban-based second car family owners at whom this Vauxhall is aimed. They'll need to be suburban-based because the maximum speed is just 88mph. With this EV version, things are much calmer over bumpers than is the case with the combustion variant, though predictably not quite as calm as they would be with the clever 'Advanced Comfort shock absorber hydraulic bump stop' arrangement employed by this Vauxhall's otherwise identically-engineered Stellantis cousin model, the Citroen C3 Aircross. But it rides quite well and with this Frontera, there's less of a cornering body roll price to pay than that Aircross model exacts upon you for supple progress over poorer surfaces.

To see the full road test text contact us on 0330 0020 227