Astra EVS to spur Vauxhall growth

Family hatch and estate set reinvention of tone for UK brand, says boss

- WILL RIMELL

The battery-powered Astra represents "almost the last piece in the jigsaw" in Vauxhall's push, boss electrification James Taylor has said, with the firm set to go EV-only from 2028.

In particular, the Astra Electric Sports Tourer will be one of only a handful of estate EVS on the market, giving the British brand a footing in a segment today served by only the MG 5 EV.

However, it's the hatchback that's expected to dominate sales when it arrives in June (six months before the estate) and, along with the facelifted Corsa Electric supermini that was revealed last week, draw in new customers, said Taylor.

"It's really important for us to have an electric Astra in the line-up," he said. "We've dominated and won in the segments we've launched the pure-electric vehicles in, whether that's the B-or B-SUV segment. [And the Astra Electric] really gives us a big springboard into that more sizeable opportunity of the C-segment EVs. So it's going to unlock quite a lot of openings for us."