The new electric Vauxhall Corsa starts from £26k

The electric Vauxhall Corsa – the Corsa-e – has gone on sale in the UK for £26,490 post government grant. And that’s…not bad at all, given it claims 205-miles of range, and a 0-80 per cent charge time of just half an hour.

Under the skin it’s basically the same car as the new Peugeot 208 and DS 3, though it looks very different. But then one of the things that CEO Carlos Tavares says is that some people simply will not buy a French car, which is why he was interested in having Vauxhall/Opel in the PSA group.

We’ve driven a prototype of the electric DS 3. Read about it here.

In the metal the new Corsa looks like a slightly loosened up Audi A1, with hints of blistered wheelarches that recall the Nova and Mk1 (cuddly, supermodel-advertised) Corsa.

Inside, too, Vauxhall/Opel has had a lot of freedom to distinguish the design of its car from the French ones. The graphics of the dash screens are entirely different, there’s none of the blingy and distracting dancing diamonds from the DS, and there are actual hardware heater controls. Hurrah.

Of course, the new Corsa was almost something else entirely. There was one ready to go on an existing GM platform, but faced with the prospect of paying licence fees to keep using said platform under PSA ownership, Vauxhall tossed it and started work on an all-new one. As a result, this new car has taken just two and a half years to bring to market.

There will be two trims. Both get a 7-inch touch screen, 11kWh on-board charger, satellite navigation, LED headlights, alloy wheels, rear parking sensors and DAB radio. The first 500 buyers will get a free home charging kit, too.

Production starts in January, with deliveries soon after. A £500 refundable deposit buys you a place in the queue. So, fancy one of these over a Honda e?

Paul Horrell and Tom Harrison