FIRST DRIVE: New 2024 Vauxhall Corsa Electric. Has Vauxhall priced itself out? | Electrifying

#vauxhallcorsaelectric #corsaelectric #electriccars

Do you remember the Vauxhall Corsa-e? Probably one of the most approachable little electric cars ever made, but one that also managed to be … how to say this politely?… a bit dull.

Luckily, it seems like someone at Vauxhall has been listening, so now we have this… the NEW Vauxhall Corsa Electric. A bit more grown-up looks-wise, and definitely more modern. It’s had a bit of a hardware upgrade too and can go further on a charge.

But there’s a bit of a problem. The price. Although the Corsa-e was never exactly a bargain, it was one of the cheapest electric cars you could buy - especially when Vauxhall threw in some incentives such as 0% finance. That all changes with the new Corsa Electric, which starts from just over £32k and goes up to £38k for the range-topper. That’s nearly £40,000… for a Corsa.

To try and soften the blow, Vauxhall has beefed up the spec. The battery has grown from 50 to 51kWh, enough to jump the WLTP range from 222miles to 246, a 15% increase. Which doesn’t sound like that much, right up until you need to get home without stopping… and it’s 30 miles away…

Join Nicola as she takes a close look around Vauxhall’s new Corsa Electric. What do you think of its new look? Is it an improvement or did you prefer the old version? Is the high price a deal-breaker? As always, we love you hear your views, so let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Our reviews are written by some of the most experienced reviewers in the business and will even help you find the perfect new or used car.

[bill_heywood]

Yes, Vauxhall and the whole of Stellantis has got its EV pricing completely wrong. It’s a Corsa with mediocre EV specs, it should start at £25k and top out under £30k. They are using ICE platforms, saving themselves a fortune, these prices are ridiculous and an act of self harm. You can get a Volvo EX30 for £33, 795 and that is a proper EV from a better brand

[waylaid]

The prices for small EVs are ridiculous at the moment. But you can get a two/three-year old top spec Corsa with low mileage for around £14 - £15, 000 which is a much better deal.

[Bongybill]

Wheels are same as pre facelift. Glove box is spacious due to left hand drive, this will be smaller on uk car due to fusebox location.
Info screen looks to be a big improvement, old screen was taken up by two large bands either side.

[rberridge]

The Peugeot e-208 GT pre-battery facelift model is trading for £23k new. Some dealers are taking £10k off the list. I know what I would do.

[MrDAVIDATKIN]

No it can't justify that price but Vauxhall massively discount the RRP. We just bought the previous model Corsa Electric. RRP was £34k actual price was £19, 750. The first price is plain daft, the latter a bargain in EV terms.

[GaryV-ph]

£32k, hard to believe now that that was the cost of my mortgage 27 years ago for a 4 bedroomed house. 🤯

[devonbikefilms]

Currently there are eight brand new e-Corsa GS models on autotrader in the uk for £19, 795. I think that answers the question.

[stevenjones]

This or a MG4 XPower or Trophy Extended Range or a Volvo EX30, Smart #1 ? 😂The Corsa is an OK car in isolation but a bad joke when stacked up against the competition.

[Draigthedragon]

We ordered the older version 18 months ago. After all the discounts it came to under £22k - an incredibly good deal. (The new prices are just daft!) Delivery was delayed a few times and, having discovered we would have a baby, we switched to the MG4. As you identified, the back door doesn't open far at all, and the rear space is small

[MikeyBee]

''Oooh that's deeper than I expected'' 🤣

[christianronn]

I like the new Vauxhall Opel face, but not on this and the Grandland where they used black plastic to fill in the gaps around the new narrower headlights. The new Astra is great. This just looks like a facelift done on a friday afternoon.

[mev]

That's deeper than I expected, look to the camera. Absolutely brilliant.

[Mobile_Dom]

as someoen who picked up a 2020 corsa electric for £15k a few months back, this is a nice update but jesus christ that price increase is insane, nice to see 11kW AC as standard though

[TTThedarkknight]

Stellantis has a weird pricing strategy. They massively inflate the MSRP and then give big discounts later. Wtf?

[SteveM-lyoy]

Well, the Mini electric also starts at 32k and has less room, a smaller boot and a lower range. But anyway, 32k is too much for any small car. Electric or otherwise.

[bryandavies]

Did a mole from MG slip into the company and arrange the pricing? Or is it priced to be discounted? The fleet sector? Does not compute?

[robertmandl]

So, a few things to add here:

1.) Stellantis moronically raised the prices on the Corsa and Mokka about 7 months ago and subsequently lined the new electric Astra up accordingly. So a top specc Corsa lands just under the price of a base Model 3 now - while the top specc Astra is in the territory of a Model 3 Long Range. The Mokka is somewhere in between.

2.) The new "gear selector" was actually introduced into the Corsa before the release of the new version. A neighbor of mine has the "old" version of the E-Corsa and has that very same selector in it.

The electric Corsa, Mokka and Astra are good cars, reliable, comfortable and well suited for your daily routines. But ever since Stellantis made them way more expensive (and they weren´t exactly cheap to begin with) I can not in good concience recommend those cars. They are just too expensive for what they bring to the table.

Their batteries are 50 - 54 kw. The good efficiency on the Astra was made real by reducing the power of the 156hp engine, effectively making the Astra and the new Corsa slower to accelerate than the previous Corsa despite the fact the previous Corsa had the 136hp engine. Said efficiency however goes out the window once you go over 110 kmh.
They all fast charge to a MAXIMUM speed of 100kwh. As far as I know there´s no charge management, meaning you can´t define, say, 80% soc as your charge goal. Last I checked you can only set a delayed starting time for charging - pretty much useless unless you use your own wallbox (if you have one).
Navigation does not include charging stops at all, the map merely shows you locations of chargers. Thats it.

No frunk, to extra space under the trunk or at least none worth mentioning.

But the biggest offense is the app for your phone. The only function that works reliably is showing you your soc. And even that takes remarkably long at times to display. All other functions sometimes don´t work or don´t work properly, including:

- You can activate the a/c system through the app. I tried this twice while the car was charging - it stopped charging the moment the a/c turned on. Useless.
- The app shows you the position of your car. However this doesn´t always update - I saw numerous occasions where the car was shown to be in a spot it previously was. For example, when it was parked in front of my home but the app showed is as being parked near my workplace, 26 kilometers away.
- The app records your journeys by taking the info from the car when you shut the car down and exit. Problem: it doesn´t always do that. More often than not I saw a solid third of a months trips missing from the records, so I stopped bothering with this "feature" as well.
- You can pre-plan a trip via the app (set a route) which then will be transferred to the cars navigation when you power up the car. While this usually works it can take a few moments, up to several minutes, for the car to receive the route. And you can only do basic planning, e.g. go from point a to point b. By the time the car receives the route you might just as well enter it manually onboard.
- There are a few other minor things that are not worth mentioning.

This app is, plain and simple, a massive insult. A buddy of mine who is into programming could probably do this better in a month with one of his hands tied to his back.


Sounds all pretty bad, right? Well, I maintain one thing: the cars themselves are, as the fine lady in this video said: fine. Fine cars, by themselves worth owning and comfortable to drive.
But with all those tradeoffs you got on them they are just OVERPRICED. And this price hike came shortly AFTER Tesla had lowered their prices.
So, as our dear host said: if you really, really want a Opel / Vauxhall electric car you´re in good hands - you just have to pay a damn lot of money. Money that might as well be invested in cars that might not be as cozy but are definitely offering way more.

[pauld]

£38, 500! They are taking the mickey!

If you want a roomier, better equipped and let's face it more exciting car, just go for an MG4 XPower! For just £36, 495 you get a fully equipped supercar! It has 360+ litres of boot space up to the boot cover and lots of tech, heated seats etc. But best of all it has 4 wheel drive and around 440 bhp with 600 Nm of torque with a 0-60 achieved in a quite reasonable 3.7 seconds.

For around £12, 000 less than the Corsa, you could get a larger MG4 base model, with more equipment. Of course no 4 wheel drive madness but a more comparative machine.

[sevesellors]

Great review as always shocked with the price. I can understand why Audi, BMW and Mercedes outsell Ford and Vauxhall, Peugeot and everyone who used to be volume but now become premium. So pleased I went for my BMW 118 M sport offering great value and top quality.
I really can’t see some of these companies surviving. The prices are insane and the dealers need to be premium too.

[ryanmcewen]

I like the Corsa, even if the price is maybe aspirational. Here in the Chicago suburbs, most people are only interested in giant trucks and SUVs…those folks wouldn’t look at this car if it were priced at $28K, let alone $38K (sorry, I know price was originally shown in pounds). And how about Nicola Hume? What a great journalist. Well-spoken, upbeat and genuinely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all sorts of cars. Other channels would do well to learn her approach.