Alpine A290 vs Vauxhall Corsa-e

The Alpine A290 costs £4,005 more than the Vauxhall Corsa-e. For that premium it adds 25 miles more WLTP range, 59 litres more boot space and 30 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Vauxhall Corsa-e comes out ahead overall.

The Vauxhall Corsa-e is £4,005 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £160 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Vauxhall Corsa-e comes out roughly £4,125 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 155 miles for the Alpine A290 and 174 miles for the Vauxhall Corsa-e - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Vauxhall Corsa-e goes roughly 19 miles further between charging stops. Both rapid-charge to 80% in a similar time, around 30-30 minutes.

The Vauxhall Corsa-e is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 58 mm narrower than the Alpine A290. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 635 mm of total clearance for the Vauxhall Corsa-e and about 577 mm of total clearance for the Alpine A290. The Alpine A290 also turns in a 0.6 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Alpine A290 and 84% for the Vauxhall Corsa-e. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.