Vauxhall Corsa-e review

The Corsa-e costs quite a bit more to buy than some small electric cars, such as the Seat Mii Electric, Skoda Citigo e iV and Volkswagen e-Up, but then you'd expect that; it's a bigger car that can travel a lot farther between charges. Indeed, prices are broadly in line with the similar-sized Renault Zoe and Mini Electric.

As you might expect, there’s very little to split the pricing between the Corsa-e and its Peugeot e-208 cousin. The Peugeot has a lower starting price, but that’s because it‘s offered with a lower level of standard equipment than the entry-level Corsa-e provides (and the e-208’s entry-level specification is the trim we’d avoid). It is worth noting, however, that the e-208 is predicted to depreciate at a much slower rate. 

Every Corsa-e is pretty well equipped, with SE Nav getting sat-nav and the smartphone integration features we outlined earlier, plus rain-sensitive wipers, automatic LED headlights, high beam assist,  keyless start and climate control. Elite Nav adds to this with larger 17in wheels, heated seats, a heated steering wheel, a rear view camera, LED front fog lights, tinted rear windows and a larger 10in colour touchscreen infotainment system. 

To charge up from 0-100% using a wallbox at home (Vauxhall will supply one and fit it for you as part of the asking price) takes seven hours and 30 minutes – fine for an overnight charge. The car is also capable of charging at 100kW – so long as you can find a rapid charger in the UK – which will take it from 0-80% in just 30 minutes. You can charge it from a domestic three-pin socket, but this takes more than 24 hours, and you have to pay extra for that cable.

The Corsa-e hasn’t been specifically tested by Euro NCAP, but the standard Corsa it’s based on achieved four stars out of five. That’s not brilliant; it lost points for doing a poor job at protecting front and rear seat passengers against whiplash. Thankfully, automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-keeping assistance, and a driver drowsiness monitoring system come as standard. If you also want blind spot monitoring, you need to step up to Elite Nav. 

We haven’t got any reliability data on the Corsa-e yet, but we can tell you that Vauxhall as a manufacturer finished a poor 27th-place out of 31 manufacturers in the 2019 What Car? Reliability Survey. Thankfully the Corsa-e is covered by a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty, while its battery gets an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty.