The new Vauxhall Corsa “will not be compromised in any way” despite being developed in less than two years by PSA Group after a signed-off design based on previous owner General Motors’ (GM) architecture was axed.
A revised Corsa was set to be launched this year, sitting on a modified version of GM’s Astra platform (it was spotted testing early last year; see picture above). However, PSA took the decision to re-engineer the car on its own small car platform, EMP1, as it took control of the company to save on licence costs to GM.
As such, the new Corsa will be launched in 2019 and will share its underpinnings with rivals including the Peugeot 208 and Citroën C3. However, global Opel and Vauxhall boss Michael Lohscheller insisted that the compressed development time would not be a hindrance to the new Corsa’s success.
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“It is a pretty fast development time, but it is not compromised in any way,” Lohscheller said. “We have a clear understanding of what we want from the car, what is possible from the platform and how to get there.
“It’s true that we had a version ready to go, and you can’t just stretch a design to fit a new platform. But the teams have done a fantastic job in record time to ensure that the car is on schedule. We started work on the project even as the deal to buy [Vauxhall/Opel] was being agreed and we are all very excited about the car.”
The new Corsa will be built at Spain’s Zaragoza plant, which has built the car since 1982, from 2019.
The current model, launched in 2014, was once the UK’s second-best-selling car. It currently sits fifth in the sales charts.
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