• Cheap if you own a home wallbox
• Expensive if you rely on public charging
• Less to break than in a petrol car

What are the running costs?

How much the Vauxhall Corsa Electric will cost you to run depends very much on where you charge it. Public rapid charging for electric cars can be expensive, especially if you want to use the fastest charging technology available and you don’t have an up-front subscription.

The cost of charging a Corsa Electric at a public DC rapid charger is the same as filling a petrol Corsa’s tank with fuel. So, once you’ve factored in the EV’s higher purchase price, you’ll probably be worse off making the switch to electric if you rely on public charging. For the best results, buy a wallbox and get an electricity tariff that offers cheaper off-peak rates. Then simply schedule the Corsa to charge during the night when the energy costs are cheaper.

The entry-level Corsa Electric features a 50kWh battery. Vauxhall says that’s enough for a maximum range of 222 miles but expect that figure to be more like 180 miles in the real world. That’s good, but by no means the best. We drove a BYD Dolphin until its battery was completely empty and it covered an impressive 243 miles.

The 51kWh Corsa has an official maximum range of 246 miles. We haven’t yet had the chance to completely empty the car’s battery to test its limits, but our early impressions suggest it’ll be able to cover around 200 miles on a single charge.

Because the battery capacities of the standard and Long Range Corsa Electrics are so similar, their charge times are very close. Using a domestic 7.4kW wallbox charger, both versions of the Corsa Electric will fully recharge in around 7.5 hours. At a faster 11kW AC charger, a full charge takes around five hours, while a 0–80% charge at a 100kW DC rapid charger takes just 30 minutes.

Servicing and warranty

What you see is what you get with Vauxhall servicing and warranty. There are lots of dealers; parts and labour costs are competitive and there are a range of service packages to help you spread the cost of maintenance over the course of the year (or the length of your finance term).

Vauxhall offers a three-year/60,000-mile warranty as standard, which you can extend to four or five years for an additional fee. However, compared to the seven-year packages offered by Kia and MG, or the 10-year scheme available with Toyotas, Vauxhall’s warranty looks a little meagre. But at least the batteries that power the Corsa Electric come with 100,000-mile/eight-year warranties, which should give buyers a little more peace of mind.

Reliability

• Fewer parts to break
• Previous model proved to be solid
• But new 156hp motor is unproven

The pre-facelift Vauxhall Corsa Electric proved to be a reliable car. Some of the drivers in our owner reviews section have expressed their displeasure at the Corsa’s real-world maximum range, but none have reported any major mechanical maladies.

Vauxhall doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to reliability. In the 1990s and early 2000s, when the company was controlled by General Motors, its cars were known for their affordable build quality and sometimes questionable mechanical reliability. But Vauxhall has seriously pulled its socks up since it was absorbed into PSA and subsequently Stellantis.

Since the Corsa Electric was launched, Vauxhall has only issued two recalls for the car, both of which were minor software glitches that only required a laptop and some new coding to fix. Build quality has taken a major leap forward over the previous generation Corsa, too. We’re confident this one will stand the test of time better than its predecessor.

Vauxhall’s new 156hp motor is still unproven, but we’ll monitor it over the coming year and update you if we hear of any issues. It’s a new unit for the Stellantis group. However, buyers can take comfort in the fact that it’s found in pretty much every small electric car the company builds.