Opel confirms that the Corsa will have a sporty version, but it won't be like the one you remember

Up to the fifth generation of the Opel Corsa, you could choose the sporty GSi version with 150 CV or the more extreme OPC version with 207 CV. Later, from 2019 with the arrival of the sixth generation and already under the Stellantis umbrella, the small German compact lost these versions in favour of more modest engines that were very closely aligned with the latest European regulations.

This meant losing one of the dream cars of younger buyers, which, incidentally, has helped their value on the used market over the years, especially when it comes to the highly sought-after Corsa OPC. About ten years later, the German brand seems set to fill this gap in the Corsa family, but, as always, there is a catch: it won’t be like the versions you remember.

Looking back at that fifth generation, neither the respective 1.4-litre turbo with 150 CV (GSi) nor the 1.6-litre turbo with 207 CV (OPC) will serve as the basis for this new chapter of the sportier Corsa, since, as you can imagine, its powertrain will be electric. In this regard, although the brand has not released more information, everything suggests that the basis for the new Corsa GSe will be the Mokka GSe, presented at the end of last year, which borrowed the mechanicals that its cousin, the Peugeote-208 GTi, also uses.

This means that under the bodywork of the future Opel Corsa GSe there is an electric motor delivering a power output of 281 CV along with a torque of 345 Nm. In the case of the Mokka GSe, these figures allow it to accelerate to 100 km/h in 5.9 seconds and reach a top speed of 200 km/h, data that give us a reference point for what to expect. Forming part of this system should be the 54 kWh lithium-ion battery, which allows the Mokka GSe to achieve a range of 324 kilometres.

Opel has confirmed that the new Corsa GSe will go on sale later this year, so we won’t have to wait long for official data and images of this new model. Even so, a distinctive look is expected, along with a series of refinements over the basic electric Corsa, namely optimised brakes, a customised chassis tuning, new suspension and the fitting of a limited-slip differential.