Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Electric long-term test
Can a longstanding model from an established brand successfully go green and take on a host of new pure electric rivals?...
The car Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Electric Ultimate | Run by Claire Evans, consumer editor
Why it's here To see if Vauxhall’s family-sized estate is a good alternative to the similar Peugeot e-308 and German estate rivals.
Needs to Enable me to rack up the miles in comfort, and be as practical and easy to live with as a petrol alternative
Mileage 9858 List price new £39,820 Target Price £39,820 Price as tested £40,520 Official range 256 miles Test range 178 miles
24 April 2025 – First for practicality
We’ve been having a clear out at home and that’s made me appreciate the practicality of my Astra Sports Tourer Electric. It easily swallowed a set of golf clubs, two old suitcases and an assortment of other things that needed to go to the local tip.
Its 516-litre boot isn’t quite as big as its Peugeot e-308 SW twin, which has 548 litres, and the batteries mean both electric vehicles have less storage space than their petrol counterparts (the ICE Astra Sports Tourer has 599 litres). However, the Astra’s boot is a useful, boxy shape and it has lots of handy features, including side cargo nets, lashing eyes, a two-level, flat load floor and 40/20/40 split-folding rear seat-backs with buttons in the boot to lower each seat back.
Although the centre and left hand seat back recline together when you pull the lever, it’s easy to separate them by pulling a cord on the top of the centre seat. This meant I could poke the golf clubs through the centre of the rear seats, and still be able to have passengers in the outer two seats if I’d needed to.
It certainly feels like many years of development have gone into making the mid-sized estate as easy as possible for people to live with. That’s no surprise because my Astra is the eighth generation of the model. It has been around since 1980, when it was the What Car? Car of the Year, so it’s got a long and rich heritage.
There are also plenty of versions to choose from, meaning that whatever type of power or body style your Astra has, it’ll have a familiar feel inside and out. The dashboard and most of the main controls are shared across all derivatives. And on the outside, there’s none of the futuristic, angular exterior styling you find on many other EVs.
In fact, it looks so similar to its traditionally-fuelled siblings that when I nipped into a local fuel station the other day for some groceries, the lady behind the counter asked me if I had any petrol to pay for this time. When I explained my car was an EV, she was pretty surprised. So, it’s a good option for anyone who wants to go electric, but doesn’t want to shout about it to the rest of the world.
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