Electric Corsa looks plain, but is still impressive

As if to prove that history is a constantly repeating, Tombola - the original Opel Corsa - was launched in 1982 to a row about tariffs between the UK and the European Union.

The Brits were miffed that the Corsa (sold there as the Vauxhall Nova originally) could be imported at a lower tax rate than cars could be exported back to Spain.

The UK complaining about treatment at the hand of Europe? Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

As with politics, history, and tariffs, the Corsa has since 1982 changed utterly, yet remained largely the same — a practical family small hatchback, with varying degrees of style and desirability down through the years.

The current version, launched earlier this year to strong critical responses, is significantly the first new Opel to be fully developed under the firm’s current French ownership, as part of what was the hpA Group, and what is now the vast Stellantis conglomerate.

Underneath, that means that this Corsa-e electric car is basically identical to the Peugeot e-208. Same 50kWh battery, same 136hp electric motor, same 337km claimed one-charge range. The same car, then? Well, not quite…

Clearly, up top, the Corsa strikes a very different pose. Whereas the Peugeot is very chic and stylish, even a little challenging to the eye in the grand French tradition, the Corsa skews more conservative, more dour. Presbyterian, almost.

Even in Elite specification, with a contrast-colour roof, the Corsa-e seems to be determined to gather as many bushels as possible around its light. Arguably, that’s not helped by the metallic grey paint, but even so it’s hard to see it as anything but handsome, albeit quietly so. It’s not as flamboyant as the Peugeot, but then neither are many of the buyers it seeks to find, so perhaps that’s okay.

What goes for the outside goes too for the innards. The Peugeot’s cabin is a riot of angled surfaces, big digital displays, and faux-carbon-fibre trim. The Corsa-e’s cabin is, by contrast, full of simpler shapes and surfaces, lots of dark grey and black, and digital displays that seems almost apologetic by comparison. The seven-inch digital instrument panel in front of the driver in our test car seemed especially under-fed, but a larger display is now available.

While it’s all a bit plain, there are benefits to choosing the Corsa’s cabin over the Peugeot’s. The chief one being physical controls, actual buttons, for such functions as the cabin temperature and fan. I’m not being a miserably Luddite here either — being able to drop one’s hand and find a switch is far easier, simpler, and less distracting when driving than fumbling around with multiple menus on a touchscreen.

If some of the plastics are a bit dull, then certainly the overall quality of assembly is more than good, and the seats are also excellent — comfortable and supportive on long journeys.

Hang on, long journeys in an electric car? Yes, in the Obama-stylee, you can. Actually, the Corsa-e is rather good at doing longer journeys, and is one of those rare electric cars that refuses to succumb to the plummeting range readout when on a motorway run.

Clearly, you’re not going to get the full 337km out of it if you are cruising at around the 120km/h mark, but you should easily get it past 250km, and that’s enough for most people, assuming that they can charge at the end of that journey.

Performance is also good, with strong — if not whip-crack — acceleration available right across the normal performance range. The usual caveats over the necessity of having a charging point at home, and the limitations of the public charging network apply but the good news is that if you can hook the Corsa-e up to one of the handful of very fast (350kW) chargers then it can suck down a full charge with no little rapidity.

The only arena in which the Corsa-e falls a little short of its French brother is in its dynamic performance. It’s not that the Corsa-e is poor to drive, or anything, but neither is it as sharp as it could be. The Peugeot makes a better fist of keeping the extra weight of the battery (a not-inconsiderable 400-odd kilos over the mass of a standard petrol model) under control.

In the Corsa, you feel the weight more, both when steering and braking. Really, you need to adopt a classic slow-in, fast-out technique for cornering or it can all start to feel a bit messy and lurchy.

It is well priced, albeit a solid €10,000 more expensive than the cheapest petrol version — €27,332 for the most basic Corsa-e, plays €17,995 for a basic petrol model.

Our Elite test car, priced at €30,602 inclusive of SEAI grant and VRT rebate, included a reversing camera, heated seats and steering wheel, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connections, sat-nav, a ten-inch colour touchscreen, online connectivity options, clever LED headlights, and a panoply of safety features.

Is it a style-free zone, though? Not quite, I feel. It’s a subtler, less in-your-face kinda car than the Peugeot e-208, but still feels pretty satisfying when you spend time with it.

Perhaps that inherent normalcy will help to draw more conservatively-minded motorists in to the electric sphere.