Our cars Mokka-E gets green light
After nine months in our care the full-electric Mokka-E is off. Here’s our report card. Guy Bird
Some long-term test cars live longer in the memory than others and the Mokka-E will be one of those for us. Stand-out design, a full-electric powertrain, right-sized for the city and easy to drive and live with, it’s been a hit with a variety of drivers and passengers. And in bright metallic Mamba Green you’ll never lose one in a car park. Drilling down into the costs, as a full EV, the Mokka-E benefits from super-low BIK – 1% when we started and still only 2% this tax year – plus zero first-year road tax and great-value running costs. In nine months we’ve managed to charge mostly at my neighbourhood lamp post 50 metres from my house for 0.24kWh (via Ubitricity/Shell). Charging an EV with a 201-mile official range means frequent plug-ins, but with a use case of frequent, mainly short trips, our overall 3.3 miles per kWh hour average stayed refreshingly close to the official 3.6mi/kWh. In colder winter months, it dropped to a 2.4mi/ kWh low, but during pleasant autumn and spring months topped 4.0mi/kWh. During our tenure we also tested the closest petrol-powered Mokka relative but found the Mokka-E to be quicker, more controllable and more serene when cruising – with only a 40-litre luggage space penalty to pay. True, the Mokka-E has a higher list price – reduced by Vauxhall by £3000 to £31,580 in December 2021 to still qualify for the new lower threshold Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) – but its in-use running costs remain its trump card and offset that initial outlay. To take two highlights, our fuel log suggests under £300 spent on nearly 4000 miles (or 13ppm) without factoring longer ownership savings from much lower EV servicing and maintenance costs which, Vauxhall says, equal £478 (£639 vs. £1117).
Downsides? At 4151mm long, 1791mm wide and 1531mm high, the Mokka-E is a small crossover (4cm shorter than a Kia e-Soul). So it’s great to navigate and park in city streets, aided by an excellent
Why we’re running it
To see if going full-electric can work for a city dweller without a wall-box.
“In nine months we’ve managed to charge mostly at my [local] lamp post.”
panoramic great rear-view camera standard on the Elite Nav Premium Auto equipment grade. However, those small dimensions translate to a pokey rear passenger space – both to access and sit in. My 6ft 3” football buddy ‘Dutch Ben’ combs the ceiling with his the head and catches his elbows on the doors. Safe to say he prefers the front. Boot space ranges from a fairly small 310 litres seats up, to a decent 1,060 litres seats down and also has two height options which we either have ‘up’, to hide the helpfully long re-charging cables, or ‘down’ when we have bulkier stuff to carry. The 10ins NaviPro touchscreen can
Standard equipment on Elite Nav Premium Auto: Active driver assist plus with driver drowsiness and forward collision alert, automatic emergency city braking, adaptive cruise control, lane positioning assistant, Vauxhall connect with e-call, front and rear parking distance sensors, panoramic rear-view camera, speed sign recognition, keyless entry and start, tyre pressure monitoring system, side blind spot alert and flank guard, hill start assist, 12in digital driver display, 10in colour central touchscreen with sat-nav, DAB radio, voice-activated control, Bluetooth & DAB, 18in bi-colour alloys and a black roof.
Optional equipment (£1,350): Premium metallic paint (£650) IntelliLux Matrix LED headlights with advanced forward lighting (£700)
be slow-to-react, which is frustrating – do as much address and other inputting before you start to stay calmer – the ride quality is below-average for a small family crossover, especially over potholes and robust speed bumps, and the interior door handles are poorly positioned and/ or lack lighting to find easily. Numerous passengers have failed to locate them in the dark.
To drive, the Mokka-E’s 136hp (100kW) motor provides useful instant and linear power, and with B button pressed and Eco mode enabled, decent re-generative braking to divert power back to the 50kWh battery. But is the 201-mile range enough (or even the 210-mile figure quoted on later tweaked models)? For our life, 90% of the time, yes. When going on 150-plus
WEBSITE Please visit
www.businesscar.co.uk/tests/long-term-test/ for previous reports on our fleet
round trips without easy charging at the ‘away end’ military planning is required – but that’s more the fault of the currently patchy UK charging infrastructure, not Vauxhall’s. Would I recommend a Mokka-E to compact families doing a circa 5000-mile annual mileage without home charging facilities and who want to go green? Again a resounding ‘Yes’ (and why not choose the £650 mamba green paint to shout about it).
Vauxhall Mokka-E (136) Elite Nav Premium Auto
P11D price (PiCG not included) £34,525 As tested £33,430 Official consumption 3.6mls/kWh Our average consumption 3.3mls/kWh Mileage 3,930
www.businesscar.co.uk | May 2022 | 47
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