New Vauxhall Frontera is sub-￡24k with electric or petrol power

The new Vauxhall Frontera will be one of the UK’s cheapest electric cars - and in a UK first, it will cost the same as the petrol version.

The chunkier, slightly larger replacement for the Crossland will be available to order in October from ￡23,495 for both powertrains. Vauxhall says this "eliminates the price disparity that usually exists between electric and petrol versions of the same car" - which it puts at an average of 31%.

Vauxhall already offers versions of its other electric cars on a PCP for the same deposit and monthly payment as their petrol equivalents, but on a five-year PCP against four for the ICE versions. The electric Frontera, however, will be offered on equal terms to the petrol car.

That list price also makes the Frontera one of the country's cheapest full-size electric cars, undercutting the likes of the MG 4, Fiat 500 Electric and Mazda MX-30.

The entry-level Frontera Electric has a 112bhp motor on the front axle – giving a 0-62mph time of 12.1sec – which is fed by a 44kWh battery that's good for 186 miles of range and charging at up to 100kW. A 'Long Range' version will launch in 2025, boosting the range to 248 miles.

The cheapest petrol hybrid variant, meanwhile, gets 99bhp from a 1.2-litre triple mated to a 48V, 28bhp electric motor in the gearbox. A more powerful version with 134bhp is available from ￡24,995.

While the pure-EV is a five-seater, the hybrid will be optionally available with seven seats - also true of the closely related Citro?n C3 Aircross, which shares parent company Stellantis’s new Smart Car platform and is due a few months later.

Vauxhall UK managing director James Taylor said offering EV and ICE derivatives at the same price will be crucial to driving uptake of electric cars and complying with the UK’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, under which manufacturers must achieve a 22% EV sales mix in 2024, rising in increments each year until the end of the decade.

He said: "Everyone can read the challenges for the industry as a whole on getting to the 22% and we've been working really hard this year on a couple of things.”

One initiative, said Taylor, is promoting the importance of improving on-street EV charging “so the 40% of customers without the driveway aren't left behind - otherwise you're automatically almost halving the potential population that could choose an EV and certainly enjoying the benefits of cost-effective charging”.

But more important, he said, is working out “how do we give customers the choice?”

Following a ‘multi-powertrain strategy’ helps in this regard, said Taylor, because “it is a big step moving from ICE to electric for many people”, but he added that more needs to be done – at a manufacturer and government level – to accelerate EV adoption to the levels that have been mandated: 22% this year, 28% in 2025 and on to 80% in 2030, though the government has mooted banning ICE car sales completely at the end of the decade.

Vauxhall, Taylor said, currently has a circa-25% EV order mix, “and that's before the launch of Frontera and Grandland [a larger SUV, also due in the coming months with EV and hybrid power], when we only have three of our five cars electrified. So I'm relatively upbeat that when we get these two models launched, our electric mix running forward is going to perform very well."

He estimates that the Frontera and the larger Grandland will bump that proportion up to 30%, but says it will be “very difficult” for the industry to achieve the mandated 33% EV sales mix in 2026 “without a stimulus”.

"People are bringing out more models to fill out their product portfolios, and that'll help a little bit, but clearly something needs to happen if we're really going to stimulate electric sales over the medium term,” Taylor said.

He called for the government to support EV uptake with measures like a reduction in VAT on public charging or the introduction of a new grant for affordable EVs, using “a repatriation of company car savings”, to make electric cars more attractive for retail customers.

Otherwise, he said, "we will be perennially faced with either a marketplace where profitability is squeezed from an OEM perspective, or cars will simply have to go up in price and therefore the market will be smaller."

Asked if Vauxhall would restrict ICE sales to augment its EV sales mix, Taylor emphasised that as part of the Stellantis group, "we will definitely be compliant", and suggested it would be more likely that "you end up with a slightly different lead time from electric to ICE".

While Vauxhall is now able to sell an EV at the same price as a petrol car, Taylor acknowledged that "we're still a number of years away" from achieving comparable profit from each.

He pointed to building a local battery supply chain and improving their energy density as crucial components of reducing the manufacturing cost of EVs, but doubled down on the need for "concerted action to improve electric demand on the used car market", with residuals for EVs currently running an estimated 10% below ICE on average.

"Building them at the same cost is one point, but clearly, if their value as a used car is less than the equivalent ICE, that's having a significant impact on our profitability."

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