The Vauxhall Frontera Has Had An Off-Road Makeover

We were slightly blindsided last year by the return of the Vauxhall Frontera, a revival of a name last slapped on a rebadged Isuzu MU in the 1990s. The original Frontera wasn’t a particularly brilliant car, but it was a handy off-roader, something the new one – which shares its underpinnings with the likes of the Citroen C3 and Fiat Grande Panda – probably can’t claim to be.

Well, not until now, anyway – Vauxhall has shown off the Frontera Gravel, a version “designed for demanding off-road adventures.” There is, of course, a catch – it’s just a concept.

The Gravel is based on the electric version of the production Frontera, meaning it gets a front axle-mounted 111bhp motor. There’s no mention of any change to that for the concept.

However, Vauxhall has teamed up with Austrian tuning culture brand XS to kit it out with various off-road bits and bobs. Most notable are the chunky BFGoodrich all-terrain tyres that encircle a set of 16-inch Borbet CWE wheels, designed specifically for off-road applications.

Elsewhere, there’s a Thule Canyon XT roof rack onto which many things have been placed, and a pair of tough-looking storage lockers attached to the C-pillars. Both the rack and bonnet have had extra LED light bars attached to them, and up front, there’s a big ol’ winch, quite possibly the only time the new Frontera will have such a thing attached to it.

To complete the look, Vauxhall has teamed up with graphic design outfit BlackFish to give the Frontera Gravel a matt champagne wrap offset with bright orange accents, the latter a theme that apparently continues on the inside (although we don’t have any pics yet).

The Frontera Gravel will be on display this weekend, probably wearing Opel badges instead, at the XS Carnight show in Wörthersee, Austria (yep, the same place where the massive VW gathering used to be). As for when you’ll be able to buy one yourself… yeah, dream on.