DESIGNED FOR SUCCESS: Opel Astra wins Red Dot Award 2023

A panel of 43 experts has awarded the new Opel Astra a Red Dot Award 2023 in the “Product Design” category, adding yet another accolade to its growing international trophy cabinet. As one of the world’s largest design competitions, the Red Dot Award has been recognising innovative design for over six decades, this year evaluating products from 60 countries.

The new Opel Astra, Continental Tyres Irish Compact Car of the Year 2023, German Compact Car of the Year 2023 and a Golden Steering Wheel 2022 award-winner, impressed judges at first sight, with its bold and pure design.

Mark Adams, Opel’s Vice President of Design, said: “Our Bold and Pure design philosophy really shines in our latest generation Opel Astra. Like every new Opel model, the Astra comes with the expressive Opel Vizor brand face and combines innovative technology with emotional design. We also developed the cockpit according to this principle. The fully digital Pure Panel can be operated intuitively and is focussed on the essentials.”

The multi-award-winning Opel Astra, available in petrol, diesel, plug-in electric hybrid and soon, as a fully electric 5-door hatchback and Sports Tourer estate, commands attention with its confident stance and road presence. 

The Opel Vizor, the new face of the brand first seen on the Mokka, follows the Opel Compass design cue, where the vertical and horizontal axes comprising the sharp crease in the hood and the wing-shaped graphic of the daylight running headlights, intersect with the Opel Blitz emblem in the middle. Stretching across the front, making the new Astra look even wider, the Vizor also seamlessly integrates technologies such as the optional ultra-slim Intelli-Lux LED® headlamps and the front camera of the Intelli-Vision system. 

Viewed from the side, the next-generation Astra is particularly striking, thanks to the pronounced forward rake of the C-pillar. 

At the rear, the Opel Compass signature is repeated, comprising the centrally mounted Blitz logo, the vertically aligned high-mounted brake lamp and the energy-saving LED tail lamps. The Blitz emblem also doubles as the latch for the tailgate, made of state-of-the-art composite material. 

The same German precision applies throughout the interior, where the absolute highlight is the next-generation Pure Panel. This expansive, digital cockpit features two 10-inch displays, integrated, together with the driver’s side air vent, in a horizontal format. 

Opel designers and engineers have taken great care to ensure that the driver receives all the necessary information and useful operating options but is not burdened with superfluous data or functions. With the physical controls reduced to the minimum in the form of finely crafted keys, the Pure Panel achieves visual detox, the optimum balance between digitisation and intuitive operation, detoxed of irritating visual stimuli and without the need for sub-menus. In combination with the high-quality and precisely designed AGR-certified ergonomic active seats, the Astra offers a modern feel-good atmosphere, inside and out.

The current Opel Astra generation expands the long line of Red Dot Award winners from Rüsselsheim.