The First Ever Fully Electric Vauxhall Corsa Is Here With A 205-Mile Range

The full reveal of the new Corsa wasn’t supposed to be until June, but thanks to a leak, it seems Opel and Vauxhall have shifted their plans.

As such, the car is here in full a little earlier than anticipated, albeit only in fully-electric ‘Corsa-e’ form. It’s the same set of images that were doing the rounds on the Internet earlier this week, although us Brits are treated to a tweaked set showing the car with Vauxhall badges and the steering wheel digitally sifted to the right-hand side. Lovely.

The way it looks, then, is no surprise. But we now have all the specs the first ever ‘leccy Corsa, and they’re pretty damn good. It’s powered by a 50kWh battery pack, giving a potential 205-mile range according to the WLTP cycle. It’s possible to extend that by up to 40 per cent in Eco, Vauxhall says, although we should imagine that’ll require a saintly driving style.

When you’re out of juice, it’ll be possible to charge the Corsa-e to 80 per cent in half an hour, if you’re hooked up to a powerful enough fast charger.

The battery and single electric motor combination provide the equivalent of 134bhp and 191lb ft, making 0-62mph possible in a respectable 8.1 seconds, a good deal quicker than the current-gen Corsa GSI. More relevant for city driving though is the 0-31mph figure, which is just 2.8 seconds.

Inside, you’ll find even a seven-inch or 10-inch touchscreen-based infotainment system, depending on how generously you’ve optioned your Corsa-e. Both are Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatible.

It can be loaded to the hilt with safety gear, too. There’s lane-keeping assistance, lane departure warning, blind spot alert, two autonomous emergency braking systems and ‘drowsiness detection’. It’s not yet clear how much of that tech will be optional.

The car will be built on the same platform as the new Peugeot 208 - which will also have its own electric variant - at Opel’s plant in Zaragoza, Spain. Expect it to go on sale around Autumn 2019.