Vauxhall Corsa-e revealed to spearhead firm’s electric push

AS one of Britain’s best-selling cars, a new Corsa is big news – even more so for the fresh one revealed back in May. It was the first Vauxhall to arrive with a clear influence from now-owner Peugeot-Citroen (PSA) in its engineering. Due to a switch to the CMP platform, this Corsa shares its underpinnings with the latest Peugeot 208. Also, just as with that car, an all-electric version tops the new-look range.

This Corsa-e will launch the company’s strategic push towards the electrified and all-electric market. In addition to the pure-EV Corsa, Vauxhall-Opel plans to offer an electrified variant of every model in its range by 2024, with four set to launch by 2020.

The new Corsa was originally planned to arrive on a new platform developed by Opel in Russelsheim, but it was swapped on to the PSA-derived CMP set-up extremely late in the model’s development, with the design of the car altered to suit the fundamental changes under the skin.

The E-CMP version of the new platform sees a 50kWh battery pack now located under the Corsa’s floor. The electric motor driving the front wheels is rated at 134bhp, while a maximum range of 211 miles is claimed. An 80 per cent top-up of the battery takes 30 minutes using a 100kW rapid charger, while an 11kW charger for home use is included as standard. The Corsa-e is priced from £26,490, and with orders now open it’ll be on UK roads in April 2020.

Showcasing the new Corsa as an electric model in April, and waiting until far later in the year to reveal the new petrol and diesel versions that’ll be on roads before it, was an interesting introduction to this latestgeneration supermini. These regular cars will arrive from January, with new PSA-derived

three and four-cylinder options.