Hyundai IONIQ Electric vs Vauxhall Astra

The Vauxhall Astra is £555 cheaper to buy. The Hyundai IONIQ Electric is cheaper to charge, roughly £136 a year versus £168 for the Vauxhall Astra, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Vauxhall Astra comes out roughly £395 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 161 miles for the Hyundai IONIQ Electric and 191 miles for the Vauxhall Astra - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Vauxhall Astra goes roughly 30 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 57 minutes in the Hyundai IONIQ Electric and 26 in the Vauxhall Astra, so the Vauxhall Astra loses less time at each stop. That makes the Vauxhall Astra the stronger long-distance car.

The Hyundai IONIQ Electric is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 40 mm narrower than the Vauxhall Astra. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 580 mm of total clearance for the Hyundai IONIQ Electric and about 540 mm of total clearance for the Vauxhall Astra.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Hyundai IONIQ Electric and 84% for the Vauxhall Astra. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.