Vauxhall Frontera Car Review

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…the Vauxhall Frontera in fully electric form. For those with long memories, the Frontera is no longer a large ladder frame 4×4, but now it’s front-drive B-SUV that rivals cars such as the Hyundai Kona. In the BEV Frontera (there is also a petrol version) there are two battery pack options, a larger 54kW version capable of a claimed 245 miles range and the car FleetandLeasing.com has tested, the 44kW car with a WLTP range of 189miles. Both are powered by a 154hp electric motor.

Vauxhall is keeping the range simple with three trim levels:

Design
GS
Ultimate

Standard equipment on the Design trim level includes wireless phone charger, 10-inch infotainment screen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, manual aircon, satnav, cruise control and 16-inch steel wheels.

GS adds blind spot alert, climate control, auto-dimming rearview mirror and 17-inch alloys.

Ultimate specification adds front fog lights, heated front seats, heated steering wheel and roof rails.

Is The Vauxhall Frontera Suitable For My Fleet

With a low P11D value, a rock-bottom BIK band, a huge 460-litre boot and room for five, you have to wonder what the catch is. In the Frontera’s case it’s the real world range. Even though the official figure is 189 miles, in our testing we found it to be closer to 100 miles, possibly less. Our car wasn’t fitted with a trip computer that measured average efficiency, something Vauxhall claims is now standard on more recently built cars. However, our calculations showed that either the efficiency dropped as the battery level dropped, or that the range computer didn’t adjust to the real efficiency very quickly. Vauxhall told FleetandLeasing.com that every time the car was charged, it would assume the range and efficiency was at the WLTP level, which explains the drop in figures with miles in the chart below.

Leasing A Vauxhall Frontera

Gateway2lease is offering the Vauxhall Frontera electric in GS trim for £335 per month on a 3+36 contract with 10,000 miles a year. Maintenance should be competitive, according to Gensen Reports, which forecasts £27 a month. Class 1A NIC comes in at £10 a month.

Driving A Vauxhall Frontera

Real world range aside, the overall experience behind the wheel is one of honesty. The Frontera is refreshingly simple to use. There are two physical buttons to turn off the unwanted ADAS systems – activated by a long press.

The car is comfortable and there’s some, but not excessive, body roll in the corners. Again, a good thing because that roll communicates what the car’s doing. The steering isn’t the most precise, but you can still understand what’s going on between the tyres and the road.

The Frontera isn’t fast, in fact by the standard of most EVs, it’s a bit slow in terms of acceleration; 0-60mph is recorded at 12.8 seconds. This too, isn’t an issue and actually suits the character of the car.

Two levels of regenerative braking are available; some and almost none. We found that leaving it in ‘some’ worked best and felt natural although in stop start traffic the brakes could be a touch grabby.

Our only real issue with the driving experience is the size of the A-pillar which does block visibility, particularly approaching junctions.

The interior and equipment levels are also simple and honest.

There’s a small (by modern standards) infotainment screen, but wireless Apple CarPlay is standard and clear enough. There’s standard (not adaptive) cruise control (activated by a physical button). And there’s aircon. You don’t really need much more. Heated seats can be optioned (or they’re standard on the top Ultimate trim), which we’d probably go for as they’d save energy on cold mornings.

Overall, the electric Vauxhall Frontera is a lovable car. It looks good and is great value, just with a small real world range.

FleetandLeasing.com Verdict On The Vauxhall Frontera

If you can live with the small range, the Frontera’s a high value, appealing car.