Vauxhall Corsa long-term test: report 4

The car Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Turbo GS Run by George Hill, staff writer

Why it’s here To find out whether Britain’s most popular small car is more than just a no-nonsense runabout

Needs to Make a daily commute through central London as easy as possible, while also being fun to drive, practical and cheap to run

Miles covered 1692 List price £22,905 Target Price £19,590 Price as tested £23,605 Official economy 55.4mpg Test economy 44.7mpg

12 April 2024 – Electric feel

If I were to compare my petrol Vauxhall Corsa to an Olympian, I’d say it’s more like Mo Farah than Usain Bolt. For while you wouldn’t buy it for its sprinting ability, it’s already proven that it’s a good long-distance athlete, capable of making big miles as effortless as you’d hope. So, when the opportunity arose to go from London to Brighton via Hampshire in a Vauxhall Corsa Electric, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to see how it compared with my car.

Specifically, the model I tried was the newest version of the Corsa Electric, which has a 154bhp motor, a 48kWh (usable capacity) battery and an official range of 248 miles. On paper, then, a 160-mile round trip like this should be well within its abilities. Plus, electric cars are renowned for offering lively performance, so perhaps this Corsa could represent the best of both worlds. That was the theory, anyway, but what was the reality?

Well, its electric motor is certainly more refined than the petrol engine in my car – something you really notice given that the Corsa is also pretty good at shutting out wind and road noice. However, I actually think my car is better at soaking up bumps, probably because the suspension of the Corsa Electric sometimes struggles to control the extra weight that comes with its big battery.

As for performance, it felt like there was actually little between the two cars – at least until I switched the Corsa Electric into Sport mode. You see, it’s only in this that you get the full 154bhp (in Normal mode you have to make do with 108bhp and in Eco just 81bhp). But once I had selected Sport, I could fully believe the official 8.2sec 0-62mph time, versus the 9.9sec of my car.

Of course, the downside is the potential impact that Sport mode has on range, so I actually drove in Normal for most of the trip. But even so, the car’s trip computer suggested that around 200 miles was going to be my limit. And given that I was going to need to get the car back to the What Car? office the next day, and didn’t want to leave the driver doing the collection with the electric equivalent of fumes, I decided to stop for a top-up on the return journey.

Hoping to be stationary for as short a period as possible, I selected a 150kW Instavolt public charger. Unfortunately, it actually maxed out at 50kW and still charged me 85p/kWh for the privilege, which equates to 16p per mile at the efficiency of four miles per kWh that I was achieving.

By comparison, I’m currently averaging 44.7mpg in my petrol Corsa, and the last time I filled the tank I paid £1.44p per litre, giving a figure of 15p per mile. So, it appears that choosing petrol over electric was – just about – the right call for my wallet, although it would be a different story if  I had off-street parking and the potential for low-cost overnight charging that would come with a home wallbox.

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