Vauxhall Mokka Electric Review: A Sharp Suit With Shallow Pockets

Our Vauxhall Mokka Electric review finds a car that’s had a serious glow-up. It’s gone from being the automotive equivalent of a beige cardigan to a genuinely sharp-suited head-turner. But while it’s a massive leap forward from its dreary predecessor, its real-world range and bone-shakingly firm ride might have you reaching for the paracetamol. It's a perfectly sound choice, but it doesn't quite set the world on fire, especially in a market fizzing with talent.

Let's be brutally honest, the old Vauxhall Mokka was the car you bought with your head, never your heart. It was as exciting as a Tuesday afternoon. The memory of that blobby, uninspired machine casts a long shadow, which makes the arrival of this new electric version feel less like a facelift and more like a full-blown personality transplant, probably involving experimental German science.

Vauxhall has clearly thrown a mountain of cash at making us forget the past. This Mokka Electric swaggers onto the scene wearing the now-signature 'Vizor' front end. It’s a genuinely striking bit of design that looks more concept car than high-street runabout, turning heads in a way its predecessor never, ever could. It feels premium, almost as if it’s been sipping overpriced flat whites in a trendy design studio.

But here’s the rub: is this all just clever marketing spin? Is the bold new face merely a distraction, a shiny veneer hiding an average EV that still has the soul of a rental car? That’s what we’re here to find out. We’re cutting through the brochure waffle to give you the unfiltered, slightly sarcastic verdict.

First impressions from the outside are overwhelmingly positive. The true test, however, is how it feels on Britain's pothole-scarred roads. It's one thing to look good parked outside a café, but quite another to live with day-in, day-out. This isn't just a car; it’s a statement of intent from Vauxhall, and it has definitely grabbed the public's attention.

This sales success proves the design gamble has paid off big time, attracting buyers in droves. You can read more about Vauxhall's impressive market performance and see how it stacks up. Now, let’s see if the driving experience lives up to the hype.

Vauxhall used to be the poster child for bland, functional company cars. Not anymore. The Mokka Electric doesn't just shuffle things along; it rips up the old design rulebook. The most striking feature is that aggressive, glossy black ‘Vizor’ front end, which gives the car a genuinely sharp and modern face. It’s a world away from its slightly gormless-looking predecessor.

The designers really have thrown everything at it. There are sharp creases down the sides, an optional two-tone roof that adds a dash of personality, and big alloy wheels that properly fill the arches. For the first time in a while, this is a mainstream Vauxhall you might actually choose for its looks alone. It cleverly hides its platform-sharing roots with the Peugeot e-2008, managing to carve out a distinct, almost concept-car identity all its own.

This bold new look is a real head-turner on the road, but does that sense of style hold up when you climb inside? For the most part, yes.

The first thing you’ll notice is what Vauxhall calls the ‘Pure Panel’ – a fancy name for two screens blended together into one long, driver-focused unit. It’s a clean, modern layout that declutters the dashboard and immediately makes the cabin feel up-to-date. Go for a higher-spec model, and you’re treated to a larger 10-inch infotainment screen and a 12-inch driver’s display, enhancing that futuristic vibe.

But while it looks the part, it’s a bit of a mixed bag to use. The graphics are decent, but the system can feel a bit sluggish, like it’s still waking up after a late night. Thankfully, Vauxhall had the good sense to keep physical buttons for key functions like the climate controls.

This pragmatic touch means you aren't forced to take your eyes off the road for every little adjustment, which is a huge plus for both usability and safety.

This is where the premium-feeling façade starts to crack a little. The top of the dashboard and doors feature some nice, soft-touch materials and interesting trim inserts. But as your hands wander further down into the cabin, they’ll find plenty of harder, scratchier plastics. It’s a classic case of ‘premium at eye level, budget by your knees’.

So, what about space? Well, it’s not the Mokka’s strongest suit.

• Front Seats: The driving position is great, with plenty of adjustment to get comfortable. The seats themselves are supportive enough for a long motorway slog.
• Rear Seats: It’s a bit of a squeeze back here for adults. Kneeroom is tight if you’re sitting behind someone tall, and that stylish sloping roofline eats into the available headroom. It’s fine for kids and shorter journeys, but you wouldn’t want to be stuck there for a trip up to Scotland.
• Boot Space: At 310 litres , the boot is on the smaller side for this class. It’s a step down from rivals like the Hyundai Kona Electric. It’ll handle the weekly shop just fine, but packing for a family holiday will demand some serious Tetris skills.

The cabin is well-organised with a few decent storage spots, but it’s clear that style has won the battle over outright space. It’s a car best suited to a couple or a young family rather than one with a pair of lanky teenagers in tow. Still, the interior is a massive leap forward, successfully burying the memory of Vauxhall's dreary past, even if some of the materials don't quite match the promise of that sharp exterior.

So, what’s the Vauxhall Mokka Electric actually like to drive? On paper, with its instant electric punch and silent operation, it promises to be the perfect tool for slicing through city traffic. But how does that translate to the reality of a wet British B-road or the soul-destroying crawl of the M25 on a Friday?

Let’s get one thing straight from the off: this is not a hot hatch pretending to be a crossover. The power delivery is smooth, linear, and completely drama-free. You get a healthy 134bhp and 260Nm of torque right from a standstill, which feels more than brisk enough for darting away from the lights and zipping into gaps. It’s that immediate surge that makes EVs feel so much livelier around town than their petrol counterparts, and the Mokka Electric is no exception. It’s competent, confident, and just gets on with the job.

However, once you leave the 30mph zones behind, that initial sense of urgency starts to tail off. Overtaking a lorry on a dual carriageway requires a bit more forward planning than you might imagine. While it’s perfectly capable of cruising at motorway speeds, it doesn’t have that deep reserve of power for effortless high-speed acceleration.

Vauxhall gives you three distinct driving modes, controlled by a small toggle switch near the gear selector. They really do change the car's personality, and not just in a subtle way.

• Eco Mode: This is the 'hypermiling' setting. It throttles the motor back to a mere 81bhp and dulls the throttle response to the point of lethargy. It’s handy for squeezing out every last mile, but it makes the car feel sluggish and, frankly, a bit joyless.
• Normal Mode: As you’d expect, this is the default setting you’ll find yourself using 90% of the time. It serves up a sensible 108bhp , which is perfectly adequate for daily duties and strikes a great balance between performance and efficiency.
• Sport Mode: Flick it into Sport, and you unlock the full 134bhp . The throttle response sharpens up noticeably, and the steering gains a little more weight. It makes the Mokka Electric feel much more awake and is genuinely fun for a quick burst of acceleration, but keep an eye on that range meter – it'll drop pretty quickly if you get carried away.

Honestly, the car feels most at home in Normal mode. Sport is a decent party trick, but the hit to your range means you’ll probably only use it when you’ve got a clear road and a full battery.

This is where things get a little complicated. The Mokka Electric shares its underpinnings with the Peugeot e-2008, but Vauxhall's engineers have opted for a firmer, supposedly sportier suspension setup. On a smooth surface, it feels composed and planted, cornering with surprisingly little body roll for a car of its height. The steering is light and direct, which makes it a doddle to park and manoeuvre through tight city streets.

The issue arises when you meet Britain's notoriously pockmarked roads. That firm setup means the car can feel a bit jittery and unsettled over potholes and broken tarmac. It's never truly uncomfortable, but it definitely lacks the cushioned, supple ride you'd find in some of its rivals. You just feel more of the road's imperfections than you'd perhaps like, which can become a bit tiresome on a long journey.

While it works well, it's not quite strong enough for true one-pedal driving, a feature some competitors pull off with more finesse. You'll still find yourself using the actual brake pedal as you approach junctions. It’s a good system, for sure, but it feels like a slight missed opportunity to make city driving even more effortless. In the end, the driving experience is polished but not perfect – a stylish, competent, and very modern milk float.

Right, let's talk about the bit every potential electric car owner really cares about. Forget the 0-60 times or how many shopping bags you can cram in the boot. The real question is: will the Vauxhall Mokka Electric get you from London to Manchester on a single charge, in the middle of a miserable, sleety February storm with the heating on full blast?

Spoiler alert: no. It absolutely will not.

This is the cold, hard reality of electric motoring in the UK, and it's where we need to separate the brochure's fairy tales from the facts. Vauxhall’s official WLTP figure claims a range of up to 252 miles from its 54kWh battery. That’s a respectable number on paper, but in the real world, it’s about as achievable as finding a public charger that isn’t broken, occupied, or demanding you download yet another app.

So, what can you actually expect day-to-day? Based on our testing, which involves a lot more than just pootling around a sunny test track, the figures are a bit more... grounded.

• The Motorway Slog: Sit at a steady 70mph, and you’ll be looking at around 160-170 miles before the range anxiety starts to properly kick in. The Mokka Electric, like most EVs, isn’t a huge fan of sustained high speeds.
• City Crawling: If you stick to urban driving where you can make the most of regenerative braking, you might just nudge closer to 200-210 miles .
• The Everyday Mix: On a typical British A and B-road commute, a realistic figure to work with is about 185 miles . Burn that number into your brain.

Of course, these figures can fluctuate wildly with the weather. Crank up the heating and heated seats in winter, and you can cheerfully knock another 20-30% off that range. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s the truth for nearly all EVs right now. You quickly learn to drive with one eye on the road and the other on that terrifyingly fickle range predictor.

The Mokka Electric does give you a few tools to manage this. The drive modes, for instance, make a noticeable difference to how quickly that battery drains.

Think of it this way: flicking it into 'Eco' is like putting the car on a strict diet, while 'Sport' is the equivalent of letting it gorge on a full English breakfast. It’s enjoyable, but not something you do every day if you care about efficiency.

Charging is the other half of the EV ownership puzzle. The Mokka Electric supports rapid charging up to 100kW , which is perfectly decent for a car in this class. In theory, this means you can get from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes at a powerful enough public charger—just enough time to grab a lukewarm coffee from a motorway service station.

Most of your charging, however, will be done at home.

Out in the wild, the public charging network can be a bit of a lottery. To give you a clearer idea of what to expect, here’s a breakdown of charging times and potential costs.

This table provides a practical look at how long it takes to juice up the Mokka Electric using different UK chargers, along with an estimated cost for a full 'tank'.

As you can see, relying solely on rapid chargers gets expensive quickly. Planning ahead and charging at home is where you'll find the biggest savings.

Despite the winter range limitations, long-term tests have shown the Mokka Electric to be a very efficient car. A six-month test by the RAC highlighted its practicality, noting its 250-mile potential from the 54kWh battery often beat rivals like the Hyundai Kona Electric and MG ZS EV. Over 3,502 miles , their testers achieved an impressive 4.4 miles per kWh , confirming its low running costs in real UK conditions. You can discover more insights about these test findings on the Stellantis media site. This proves that while range anxiety is real, the Mokka can be a surprisingly frugal companion.

The thrill of a new car is one thing, but the slow burn on your bank account is another entirely. So, let’s get down to brass tacks: what’s the Vauxhall Mokka Electric really going to cost you, and how does it stack up against the other stylish electric SUVs vying for your cash?

First, let's talk about the good stuff. Running an electric car in the UK still has some very nice financial perks. The big one is the complete absence of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), or road tax as most of us call it. That’s a decent saving every year, although be warned – the government plans to end this little party from 2025. For now, though, it’s a zero-rated affair.

Company car drivers, listen up. If the boss is footing the bill, the Mokka Electric is a seriously clever choice. Its Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax rate is a rock-bottom 2% , which means you’ll hardly even feel the deduction from your payslip. Put that against a petrol or diesel equivalent that would cost you an arm and a leg, and the appeal is crystal clear. It's pretty much a government-approved pay rise.

Of course, the Mokka Electric isn’t playing in an empty field. It’s swimming in a shark tank of talented, fashionable rivals, all wanting a piece of the action. This is where the decision gets tough, as each competitor brings something different to the table.

Let’s line them up for a friendly scrap.

• Peugeot e-2008: Think of this as the Mokka’s French cousin, as it's built on the exact same platform. It generally offers a slightly softer, more comfortable ride and a funkier i-Cockpit interior, but you have to get on with that tiny steering wheel. It’s basically the same car in a different, arguably more chic, outfit.
• Hyundai Kona Electric: This is the sensible one of the group. The Kona might not have the Mokka’s design flair, but it often trumps it on real-world range and comes with Hyundai’s excellent long warranty. It’s the pragmatic choice for those who put substance before outright style.
• MG ZS EV: The undisputed value champion. The MG gives you a surprising amount of space, a very usable range, and a price tag that makes the others look a bit expensive. The trade-off comes in the interior quality and driving dynamics, which feel a bit less polished than its European rivals.

So, how do they really compare?

It’s a classic head-versus-heart dilemma. Your spreadsheet might be screaming "Hyundai" or "MG," but it's the Mokka's sharp suit and Vizor grille that might just win you over.

So, where would we put our money? Honestly, it’s a close call, because the Mokka Electric is a thoroughly decent package. It’s efficient, looks great, and is cheap to run, especially for company car users. That said, its firm ride and slightly tight rear space mean it isn't perfect.

The Peugeot e-2008 delivers a more comfortable experience, while the Hyundai Kona Electric offers that extra peace of mind with its superior range. And you can’t ignore the MG ZS EV lurking in the background, offering stonking value for money. The Vauxhall Mokka Electric finds itself in a tricky middle ground—it isn't the best at any one thing, but it's a solid all-rounder with a killer sense of style. If looks are your number one priority, it’s a brilliant choice. For everyone else, the decision is much, much tougher.

Right then, you’ve waded through the reviews, you’ve scrutinised the range figures, and you've decided the Mokka Electric’s sharp looks are for you. Now for the exciting part: actually getting one parked on your drive without paying over the odds. Let's be honest, the list price is just a starting point. This is where we go hunting for a proper bargain.

Securing a great deal on a new car can feel like a bit of a dark art, but it's really not that complicated once you know what you’re looking at. The trick is understanding the different ways you can buy a car these days, because very few people just turn up with a briefcase full of cash. Most deals are built around finance, and getting your head around the jargon is the first step to saving a serious amount of money.

When you start looking at a new Vauxhall Mokka Electric, you'll find two main types of finance deals. They might sound similar, but they work in fundamentally different ways.

• PCP (Personal Contract Purchase): This is by far the most popular route. You put down an initial deposit, then make monthly payments over a set period (usually three or four years). When the term ends, you have three choices: pay the final 'balloon payment' to own the car outright, hand the keys back and walk away, or use any equity you have as a deposit on your next car. It offers great flexibility, but that final payment can be a big one.

• PCH (Personal Contract Hire): Think of this as long-term rental, or leasing. You’ll pay a deposit and then a series of fixed monthly payments. At the end of the contract, you simply give the car back. There’s no option to buy it. The monthly costs are often lower than a PCP deal, making it a very cost-effective way to drive a brand-new car if you have no desire to own it.

The Mokka Electric is a popular car, so the deals are constantly changing. It had a flying start to 2025, with 606 registrations in January alone, which contributed to a massive 48.4% sales jump for Vauxhall as a brand. That strong demand has continued, with the Mokka Electric also ranking as one of the fastest-selling used EVs in the second quarter of 2025. You can read more about Vauxhall's impressive market performance to see how this popularity influences pricing.

Now that you know the lingo, you’re ready to talk numbers. Don’t be afraid to negotiate; the dealers absolutely expect it. The secret is to look past the headline monthly payment and focus on the total amount you’ll pay over the life of the agreement.

Keep an eye out for a healthy ‘dealer contribution’ or ‘deposit allowance’ . This is essentially a discount from the manufacturer or dealership to make the offer more attractive. Anything over £2,000 is a pretty good start.

Most importantly, shop around. Get quotes from a few different dealers and use online brokers like Carwow to see what’s out there. Letting one salesperson know that a rival dealer has put a better offer on the table is the oldest and most effective trick in the book. Play them off against each other and watch the price begin to fall.

Right, we've talked about the sharp looks, how it feels on the road, and that all-important (and sometimes nerve-wracking) range. But there are always a few niggling questions that land in our inbox about the Vauxhall Mokka Electric. Let's do a quick-fire round to tackle the things that might be keeping you up at night.

Think of this as the final briefing before you head to the dealership – the stuff that often gets glossed over but is genuinely important when you actually have to live with the car.

This is a big one. Nobody wants the most expensive bit of their car to pack up unexpectedly. Vauxhall gives you an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty on the battery, which is pretty much the industry standard and offers a decent safety net.

Crucially, this isn't just for a complete failure. It also guarantees the battery will hold at least 70% of its original capacity during that time. So, you're covered if it starts losing its ability to hold a charge much faster than it should.

In a word? No. Not unless your idea of a family holiday is just you and a credit card. At 310 litres , the boot is on the stingy side compared to some key rivals.

Definitely. Even the base models come with a good amount of kit. You get a touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, plus cruise control and a solid package of safety systems. Step up the trim levels and you get treats like the bigger 'Pure Panel' digital screens, heated seats, and adaptive cruise control.

A quick word of warning, though. While the screens look great, the infotainment software itself can be a bit sluggish to respond. It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but it just doesn't have the slick, instant feel you'd find in a Tesla or even a modern Kia. It works, but it won’t wow you.

Yes, it does. As of late 2025, the Vauxhall Mokka Electric is eligible for the UK’s electric car grant, which knocks £1,500 off the list price . The dealer handles this for you, so it's a straightforward discount that helps soften the initial hit to your wallet.

Ready to explore the world of electric vehicles with a bit more honesty and a lot less jargon? Check out VoltsMonster for reviews, guides, and podcasts that tell it like it is. Find your next EV with us at https://www.voltsmonster.com.