Vauxhall Frontera Electric review

Vauxhall speaks of a ‘detoxed user experience’ in here and it shows, with a rather industrial look, lots of hard-wearing plastics and minimal distractions. It’s all very tidy but the vibe is uninspiring, and it’s certainly not as flashy as some rivals nor as intriguing as its Citroen relation, losing its slim, high instrumentation in favour of something far more conventional.

We’d have preferred a bit more padding to Vauxhall’s new flat bottomed steering wheel, but it’s otherwise a good size. The dashboard is clean and gets a handy storage shelf with a practical rubber tray. There’s also a flexible strap around the centre console, which allows you to store larger devices such as laptops or iPads where the cupholders would normally be.

Upper spec models get front Intelli-Seats, with a slot that helps to relieve the pressure on your tailbone. They're different to Citroen's Advanced Comfort seats in the C3 Aircross, each of this otherwise very similar pair befuddlingly offering different seat tech. Try 'em both out if either feels like a big selling point to you, but both should feel just dandy for the limited stint behind the wheel their battery powertrains naturally yield. 

Behind the front seats there’s room for two adults to sit comfortably with plenty of legroom, or three at a push, but the floor is higher than the hybrid - forcing rear passengers' knees to a mildly more agressive angle - and you wouldn’t want to be three abreast back there for very long. No seven-seat option in the Frontera Electric either, unlike its more flexible hybrid twin.

Detoxed user experience, you say? Uh oh…

Wait, it’s not as bad as it sounds. All variants get a dual 10-inch screen setup, joined at the hip and angled towards the driver. They’re clean to read and fuss-free, but the driver display is very limited in customisability and the main display feels quite basic.

It gets better, though, because Vauxhall has deployed common sense and kept its climate controls separate from the main display via dedicated buttons and dials below the main touchscreen. Very intuitive and easy to use, which is more than can be said for some rivals.

A comfort pack introduces a heated steering wheel, front seats and windscreen, while all versions get two USB-C ports front and rear, plus wireless charging and voice recognition.

Will I fit the kitchen sink in it?

Well, seats up you’re looking at 450 litres of luggage space in the boot. Fold them down and this extends to 1,600 litres. A fact that Vauxhall is very proud of, waxing lyrical about it having a bigger boot than an Astra Electric Sports Tourer despite it being the same length as an Astra hatch. It also means parity between electric and hybrid Fronteras.

Additional versatility is provided by split-level boot floor and 60:40 split folding rear seats. But that’s pretty much the norm these days.