New Vauxhall Frontera Electric 2025 review: adequate SUV is saved by its price

Verdict

The entry-level Vauxhall Frontera Electric offers impressive space and equipment for the money, especially with the Government grant, although you can see where cost has been taken out. The driving experience is adequate, and range really isn’t great, but the biggest strength is its keen pricing. 

The fashion of reviving old brand names reached the Vauxhall Frontera this year –  formerly a chunky and slightly crude off-roader sold through the 1990s and beyond. 

Its revival comes in a smaller form than its predecessor, as the new Frontera nestles between its Mokka and Grandland SUV siblings; 230mm longer than the Mokka and 265mm shorter than the range-topping Grandland, with all three offered in petrol hybrid or electric form. In petrol guise at least, it gets the £550 option of seven seats, but the back two occupants will have to be pretty small, and it wipes out all bar 40 litres of boot space.  

We’re focusing on the electric version here because, in an unprecedented move, it’s actually cheaper than the entry petrol hybrid model, although still marginally above Citroen’s closely related C3 Aircross.

As with all electric Vauxhalls, the Frontera qualifies for the Government’s £1,500 Electric Car Grant, further distancing the electric version from its pricier hybrid car sibling. With the grant, the EV kicks off at £22,495, although the Auto Express Buy a Car service currently has new Frontera Electric models available below £20,000. 

It makes sense to shuffle up to the mid-spec GS, because the entry Design car feels very much an entry car, with steel wheels, no parking sensors and basic air conditioning. GS adds 17-inch alloys, front and rear parking sensors, climate control and plenty of other appealing features, including the comfy Intelli Seat front seats and tinted rear windows. Another £800 takes you to top-spec Ultimate, with heated front seats and steering wheel, gloss black roof rails and LED front fog lamps. 

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Intriguingly, Vauxhall is doubling down on the Design car’s basic steel wheels, with a £400 optional Design pack painting them white to go with a white roof, replacing the body colour. But Design is still a bit barren, so we’d go for the GS. 

The entry 44kWh battery is, as you’d expect at this price, not lavish in terms of range, with an official figure of just 186 miles. We found in real-world mixed driving, that wasn’t too far from reality, and in our experience you’ll be looking at somewhere just over 160 miles on a charge. That’s based on some quick maths, as there’s not yet an efficiency readout on the trip computer – that’s supposedly coming in an imminent over-the-air update, in another of the growing examples of cars being launched when they’re not quite finished. The 54kWh battery takes the range up to 253 miles for an extra £3,500; a much more usable number to live with, but extending beyond the bargain pricing.

Modest performance accompanies the Frontera’s modest battery size, with the 0-62mph dash more of a 12.8-second stroll, on the way to an 88mph top speed. It’s fine around town, but does feel like a little more urge would be nice when you’re out on faster roads. Although those roads do expose a choppy ride quality that doesn’t ever really gather composure on bumpier roads. Anything other than smooth flat asphalt is fed back through the car to make it quite unsettled, so it’s not a package for high-speed cross-country jaunts. The light steering, lovely in town and operated via a good chunky steering wheel, doesn’t help sharpen the drive experience. At least body roll is controlled nicely, so the family won’t complain about being thrown around. 

There is only one level of brake energy regeneration, rather than multiple settings found on many of the best electric cars. It defaults to on, which is good, and is strong enough to bring down the speed without touching the brakes when the limit changes, but is some way away from a full one-pedal mode. 

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The electric car gets the same 460-litre boot as the hybrid, and it’s a good square shape with decent load height, and no lip when the boot floor is in the higher position. The floor lifts to give you somewhere to tuck the cables, or can drop to a lower position to maximise space. With the rear seats down you’re left with an almost flat 1,600-litre maximum that majors on height as much as length, with total space about the same as an Astra estate, despite being 230mm shorter. 

Rear passengers will be pleased with the amount of space on offer too; we found legroom and headroom are more than adequate, and your feet will slide under the front seats to increase comfort. The only complaint is a regular EV quibble of the high floor, necessary to house the batteries, meaning you sit in a slightly odd position where your legs aren’t resting on the seat cushion. 

Less good on the inside is the quantity of cheap plastics. It’s clear where money has been saved to get to that appealing price, although at least there’s a good combination of colours and textures so the cabin isn’t just black plastic. The fabric on the door trims and armrest breaks things up a little, and there are various little cubbies, although not much by the way of chunkier stowage space inside. 

There are also plenty of little places you can see the cost-cutting, too – there are no front grab handles for example, the glovebox isn’t damped and is very cheap, there’s no light on the passenger sun visor and it hasn’t got the brake hold function a lot of autos have. 

The touchscreen also looks a little dated and isn’t the most hi-tech, and the dash display is fairly minimalist, but both are functional and a decent size at 10 inches each. 

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