Vauxhall eyes sporty rebrand with next-generation Corsa

Vauxhall will look to become a sportier brand within the Stellantis stable in its next generation of models, starting with the new Corsa.

Stellantis Europe boss Jean-Philippe Imparato said Munich’s Corsa GSE Vision Gran Turismo showed the initial thinking behind moving Stellantis’s brands into more “white space” and breaking out further away from one another, Vauxhall’s white space being sportiness.

Vauxhall CEO Florian Huettl told Autocar the concept was “a great illustration of what we are working on for the next step”: building “sportiness” while ensuring the brand still makes cars that are “approachable and affordable”.

A further expression of the brand’s push into sportiness was seen with the introduction of the new Mokka GSE at the Munich show, said Huettl. 

Huettl confirmed development work had begun on the next-generation Corsa. A launch in 2027 is considered likely for the supermini, at a price that Huettl confirmed would be around €25,000.

The next Corsa will be based on Stellantis’s STLA Small platform rather than the cheaper Smart Car platform, as it's a more mature product in need of larger batteries. To that end, it will be offered as an electric car only.

Huettl said it was no longer Vauxhall’s intention to only offer electric cars from 2028 as previously planned, however.

While the next Corsa will be offered only as an EV, the current ICE Corsa is likely to stay in production alongside it so that Vauxhall is able to cater for that market.

Building on the decision to remove the 2028 EV-only pledge, Huettl said it wasn't a case of Vauxhall pausing or rowing back on EV development but instead a flexible and pragmatic response to the market’s slower than expected shift to EVs.