Phil Drage drives a Vauxhall Corsa-e 50kWh 2020.

This is Phil’s first electric car, he’s owned the Vauxhall Corsa-e 1-2 years and drives 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 20,000-30,000 miles and he achieves 180 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the Vauxhall Corsa-e?

• Liked it
• ex-demonstrator became available when looking
• KIA not available for 9 months from ordering otherwise an e-Niro would have been my choice.

Positives – List 3 or more reasons why you love this electric car

• Acceleration
• standard gadgets
• running costs e.g. servicing.

Negatives – List 3 or more things that you really don’t like about this electric car

• Lost £8,000 in 18 months! Not the fault of the car but the market situation as a result of the press being used by oil companies to rubbish the whole move away from their product.

Compared to when you first bought the car, does your battery still charge at the same rate & do you still get the same range?

The max range seen was 207 (only once), the minimum was 180. This has remained fairly static.

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

On delivery there was a fault with the charging system but this was rectified quickly and it didn’t happen again. The only issue was the French way of doing things, updating software and sat-nav was difficult even for the Vauxhall garage.

What are the standout technological features of the car?

Reactive matrix headlights, reversing camera (especially helpful when reversing into a narrow garage), regen braking (dangerous with following traffic, but good for saving wear on brakes), sat nav integration with locations of charge points & also a comfortable small car.

Surprise us! Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about this electric car

Requirement for regular recharging introduces a different way of approaching journeys. We travel every week approx. 80 miles to our daughter’s. This should have been achievable without a recharge but not on motorways. Every week I put the car on a rapid charge at our destination for 30 minutes while I enjoyed a Premier Inn breakfast next to the garage, which incidentally cost more than the recharge. We also took a similar trip to Kew Gardens, calling in at a service station on each leg of the trip to recharge while we took a comfort break. We also used a GRIDSERVE station near Norwich whilst on holiday. If only there were more places like this!

What’s the biggest or funniest myth you’ve heard about EVs?

I became involved in this area as a result of being my county’s Industrial Fire Safety Training Officer. I received a call from a company I cannot name enquiring about the issues with batteries as F1 was just introducing KERS. As an electrical engineer, I had previously worked on drives for mostly marine use, so I understood the technology but at the time was only just becoming aware of the battery issues. The Corsa-e apparently has water cooling within the battery, others have safety shut-downs when the temperature approaches the critical 60 degrees C. Obviously mechanical damage and water ingress can cause the unfortunate (total loss) of a vehicle.

What electric car(s) are you interested in next and why?

I would’ve liked to have been able to justify a KIA EV6 but we now have a PHEV for trips to places like the Cotswolds. Much as I loved our Corsa-e, we needed both a larger car and a better range. Cars which would meet these criteria were and still are, out of the price-range we are prepared to outlay. Also, the infrastructure hasn’t improved greatly. Charge points operated by local authorities have been poorly maintained, ‘early adopting’ Milton Keynes has many non-operating 10 year+ old charge points gradually being replaced but in different locations. Our local town has installed 6 chargers in the multi-storey (town centre) car park but only 3 cars can use them. Similarly, they have installed on-street chargers with only reserved parking spaces for half of them!

Home charging unit – outline both positive & negative elements

Pod Point – recommended by the garage, we also have a granny lead for daytime lower charging speeds and for travel when there are no charge points available. We now have solar cells and storage to help off-set the cost. Octopus have an off-peak overnight rate to reduce the cost too. I’d like to add a solar car port for recharging too, as they do in France.

Electricity supplier & tariff – outline both positive & negative elements

Octopus Flux – there is also a tariff specifically for EVs.

Do you use public charging networks?

No

Insurer – outline both positive & negative elements 

LV= have a specific policy for EVs which includes recovery for flat batteries (as do the AA).

Please itemise where you’re saving money (or not) owning & running a Vauxhall Corsa-e

When running a full EV we were saving on the cost of petrol with the cost of charging (at the time being lower) with many 7kW chargers being free along with parking too.

*Manufacturer image used.

See other Vauxhall Corsa-e Owner Reviews here