The new Astra is a smidge longer and wider than before but more significant is the half inch (15mm) lopped off the car’s height – its road-hugging appearance is not just an illusion – with the seats lowered by a comparable amount. Another half inch (13mm) is the amount by which the wheelbase has increased, to ensure legroom and boot space, both of which are said to be slightly up on before.
Reimagining the Astra in this way is all as a result of its completely changed underpinnings: this is the EMP2 platform, and as such definitely more PSA than GM. It is lighter and stiffer than the old one and is being shared with the new Peugeot 308, Vauxhall and Peugeot now being brothers-in-arms in the massively wide-ranging enterprise that is the Stellantis group.
The platform is not the only thing the Astra shares with its French cousin: powertrains are set to mirror the 308’s, too. That means petrol and diesel engines (they range from 110-130PS, 81-96kW) with manual (or auto) gearboxes, for Astra traditionalists, and to maintain an entry price point in the market. But it also means an electrified version – an Astra first.
The new top Astra is a hybrid of the plug-in variety, and as with the PHEV Grandland, the combo of 1.6-litre petrol engine and electric motor is likely to be offered in 150PS (112kW) or 180PS (134kW) forms. Either has an ability to run in electric mode for short distances (the Grandland can go around 30 miles on battery power).