VAUXHALL'S new Corsa electric car will be priced from £26,490 when it arrives early next year.

The price includes the Government grant for low emission vehicles and pitches the model competitively against alternatives from the likes of Volkswagen, Kia and Hyundai.

Order books for the first battery powered Corsa are opening now and Vauxhall's first electric model is expected to be on the road next spring - a few months after conventionally engined versions of the new Corsa hit the scene.

Sharing its underpinnings with the latest Peugeot 208 from Vauxhall's new French owners PSA, the Corsa will be built in Spain and prices for the non-electric models are expected to start from around £14,000.

The electric model will have a range of around 205 miles on a single charge and a fast recharge time of 30 minutes meaning the Corsa-e is targeting regular users who want to go green.

And to incentivise the new model, Vauxhall is offering a free home charger to the first 500 who place an order.

Vauxhall took the wraps off its new baby at an exclusive preview for the electric model where the company announced the Corsa-e will come with an eight year or 100,000 mile warranty to cover its 50kWh battery.

The charging point is at the rear of the car and located under the regular filler flap.

The electric motor in the Corsa-e develops 136ps which Vauxhall says gives it a lively performance accelerating from 0 to 60mph in 8.1 seconds - not far off that achieved by the current hot Corsa, the VXR.

The new Corsa is the fifth generation of Vauxhall's top selling supermini and has almost become a permanent fixture among the top ten selling models in the UK since it first appeared in 1983 when it was badged as a Nova in Britain.

In the metal, the latest model looks slightly larger than before but in reality it is almost the same size.

Vauxhall says it is around 1.5-inches longer but a fraction narrower and has a longer wheelbase.

The result is more cabin space and a bigger boot at 309 litres - up from 285.

The interior is a huge leap forward and top range models will come with a 10-inch display screen and a multi-mode digital instrument panel.

So-called hard keys have been retained for the air conditioning and ventilation and all the switches are styled in traditional Vauxhall fashion although the gear lever on the Corsa-e is similar to that used by other automatic PSA models.

The Corsa-e will be available in two trim levels, both of which will come as standard with a seven-inch touch screen, 11kWh on-board charger, satellite navigation, LED headlights, alloy wheels, rear parking sensors and DAB radio.

Designer Mark Adams said that although the new Corsa may be based on a PSA platform it has been styled as a Vauxhall and was developed in record time.

With angular looks, especially at the side and on the tailgate and the option of a bitone roof colour, the new Corsa looks smart and contemporary.

The electric model carries an ‘e' badge on the door pillar but apart from that Vauxhall says its looks are the same as that of the regular model, details of which are to be released soon.

Since it first arrived 35 years ago the Corsa has notched up more than 14 million sales around the globe and in 2018 more than 52,000 were sold in Britain making it the nation's third most popular model behind the VW Golf and Ford Fiesta.