Holden is stretching its Astra range with a new Sportwagon. 

The soon to be former Australian car maker has announced that a wagon variant of its Astra small car will arrive by the end of 2017 where it will join its hatch and sedan siblings. 

"With Astra Sportwagon joining Astra hatch and Astra sedan, we're making sure there's an exciting and desirable Holden small car to suit any taste or circumstance," said  Holden's executive director of sales, Michael Filazzola. 

Sourced from Europe, the Sportwagon is more closely related to its hatch sibling than its more distant South Korean sourced sedan cousin that is known as the Cruze in all other markets. 

As the Sportwagon is sourced from Europe it comes with autonomous emergency braking which isn't made available for Astra sedans. 

Other safety technology includes lane keep assist, forward collision alert and a reversing camera. The Sportwagon is also compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, while the large boot - with a maximum load capacity of over 1600 litres - is accessible via a hands-free tailgate. 

The Sportwagon misses out on the larger 1.6-litre turbo engine from the range-topping hatch variants, but instead scores the 110kW/245Nm 1.4-litre turbo petrol unit found in the sedans and lower tier hatches. The wagon is equipped with a six-speed auto with power delivered to the front wheels. 

The Astra wagon will fill a hole in the small wagon space that is really only occupied by Volkswagen Golf since the departure of the i30 wagon. 

Holden hasn't revealed any pricing as yet, however, the Astra Sportwagon's logical competitor would be the new base Golf wagon which goes on sale in July and is priced from $28,990 before on-road costs, as well as many entry-level two-wheel drive SUVs which kick off around the $28k mark. 

More information will be made available closer to the car's launch date towards the end of 2017.

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