FIRST LOOK: NEW Vauxhall Corsa-e. What HAS Vauxhall done? | Electrifying

#vauxhallcorsae #corsaelectric #electriccars

Remember the Vauxhall Corsa Electric? 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.

One of the things we complained about with the Corsa Electric was that although it was based on the same bits as the Peugeot e-208, it ended up looking like the frumpy sibling. In now looks more like the rest of Vauxhall’s range now, mainly thanks to this ‘Vizor’ front end that we’ve already seen on the Mokka and Astra. It’s sharper, neater and more modern, and still a small, five-door hatchback.

The rest is pretty much as it was before, although the badges on the back have moved into the middle of the car and all the chrome bits - including the badges - have turned black. There’s also a shark-fin antenna up here, and black 17-inch wheels.

The battery has grown from 46.6kWh to 48.1, enough to jump the WLTP range from 222miles to 255, 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 Nicki as she takes a close look around Vauxhall’s new Corsa-e. What do you think of its striking new look? Is it an improvement or did you prefer the old version? As always, we love you hear your views, so let us know what you think in the comments below.

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[jjt]

It does make me laugh about how people criticise the styling. If you'd put the four Audi rings on the front people would be wax lyrical about how classy it was.

[brummiesalteno-]

There is no way I'd choose this over an MG4.
How on earth can they justify £30, 000+ for a small city car. If it was ~£20, 000 then there might be some debate.

[aeonturnip]

Unfortunately £5k too expensive - your comparison to the MG4 is spot on, and that's a bigger more practical car too. This has no right to be more expensive, especially with only a 3 year warranty on the rest of the car except the battery.

[davidcolin]

"Is this enough to put the Cross on your list?" No.
It's still based on the FWD ICE version.
I would like PSA to explain to me why I would part with 8K more for this over an MG 4, which has better internal space, RWD and 50/50 weight distribution. And the base 4 has pretty much the same specs as the top model Corsa.

[willienelsongonzalez]

Manufacturers completely failing to deliver on prices once again.

[robsmitha]

Three year old examples of the previous model are about £15k now - assuming similar depreciation probably worth holding on a few years. Looks nice though

[riaz]

The Corsa e ultimate is £36k at the moment, which is bonkers. If the VW ID2 hits £24k base and say £29k top spec, that'd be even more embarrassing.

[adventtrooper]

For an entry level product it shows everything wrong about the direction of personal transport this century.
A 2003 Corsa started at £6915, or £11408 allowing for inflation, and a small town runabout lasting 20 years isn't unreasonable (if not fashionable for the Jones's). All the improvements in efficiency have been absorbed by doubling the weight; all the cabin upgrades have tripled the price even in real-terms; and the increased size means it's less able to accomplish its main job of navigating town streets and squeezing into parking spaces.

[stevedunn]

Is it enough? I’m afraid not. We need to see these cars being more competitively priced if more people are to get into driving EVs.

[TrevorHa]

I paid 29k for an id3 ordered October 21, now a corsa is valued more than that? With prices how they are I have no idea what my next car will be. I doubt the ID2 will be sub 25k, how could it be when the current id3 is 37k? Everything is just too expensive.

[CastleKnight]

To stand a chance it needed to come in at below £27, 000.

[brucekennedy]

We were all thinking it and you said it. Hard nope. Because MG4.

[nssimpson]

My two local Vauxhall dealerships are hopeless! Also 3yr warranty says to me that they don't have much long-term confidence in their product.

[bluebear]

Anyone paying over 33 K for a subcompact car must be out of his mind! The petrol version is nearly half of that!

[markbainton]

This needs to be 25k to get any sales. 34k at as well add and by a Tesla

[Wellibob]

Corsa sells on price. This new E price simply is out of 90% of the UKs population budget. Ergo it'll fail

[decimal]

11kW AC charging is a really nice addition. That makes a lot more faster-charging options available when all the rapid CCS chargers are taken (or broken). MG4 in comparison only has a 6.6kW charger.

[examinerian]

A nice update. Thoughts are:
- the 3yr warranty is standard fare, and they could go to 5 or 7 without much trouble. I've a '13-plate Zafira with the 100k Lifetime Warranty still in place, and it easily made it to 7 without needing much work, and only needed a couple of bigger warranty jobs within the past half-year.
- Ford chucking the Fiesta (and Focus) under the SUV bus will boost Corsa sales in UK. It'll help others in the sector too, but the Fiesta and Corsa have been trading blows for decades, with both being in the top-10.
- I hope Vaixhall/Stellantis move away from the ridculous and frankly unsustainably high guaranteed future values on the smoke and mirrors PCP game. We're fast reaching the point where used EVs are just cars and nothing special. Gone are the days where a 3yr-old EV version can pull £15k more than identical age/spec ICE versions in the range. Instead, they should just drop the RRP back down by the £10k "EV Premium", then folks like me who never lease but buy outright will begin to shop for them again.
- Seated heats and wheel should be standard on all models. Any news on the climate system - is it a heat-pump or a battery-sapping resistive heater?
- How is it on one-pedal driving? ORA, Hyundai, Nissan - these all get it right, especially the Ioniq6 I tested the other day - different size/quality class altogether, though!
- My car history is Vauxhall all the way down from my Firenza, but having tried a few EVs recently, I'd put the new Corsa above the Ora Funky Cat (though not for interior space), but lower than a BYD ATTO3 (the Dolphin was nice, and the real Corsa competitor in the BYD range, but I didn't drive it). There's some serious competition building up, and sadly I reckon the trad brands need to do a massive strategy & pricing overhaul in the next two years.

[chrisardy]

Surprised there are not more comments about the crappy MyVauxhall app which only works about half the time on my ICE Corsa and from reports is even worse on the electric version.

[jamiep]

I enjoyed watching the Video. I particularly like the Vizor Grille that features on the Astra 😊