Thoughts on Vauxhall Mokka Electric 2021?

SkyTerran

SkyTerran

SkyTerran

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I'm looking to purchase my first EV with a £13K budget and need advice on the 2021 Vauxhall Mokka Electric. My typical usage is:
  • Daily 40-mile round trip commute on congested highways
  • Usually drive alone or with one passenger
  • No home charging available, but access to new Shell public chargers nearby
  • Safety is my priority, especially automatic emergency braking for pedestrians
  • Fun driving dynamics aren't important to me
Would the Mokka Electric suit these requirements?
 
Yes but it will probably cost you at least the same but probably more to run using only public chargers than a petrol car with less convenience. As far as the Mokka goes, its 'fine', by no means the worst car but its not the best in class either.

I'm not saying that as an EV detractor, I've exclusively driven one as our only vehicle for 4 years.

P.S. there is a thread for this already https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/when-are-you-going-fully-electric.18829138/
 
What is the relative price of those shell kwh versus supercharger with membership, my neighbour with id4, just granny charging (as I would have to do too, until we put in a £2K cable to garage + charger cost)
was complaining about local/1mile instavolt @80p versus tesla in the 40s, such a differential would be galling. ... others on here must know these price differentials by heart

Otherwise after a weeks extended test-drive with a mokka-e, few thoughts
comfort : I'm not familiar with SUVs, A pillar is quite big and edge of bonnet difficult to establish, and for urban environment I'd find it quite large even though it's a compact, seat squab maybe a bit short.
no creaks seemed well screwed together.
it's non chinese : like ID3, say; I think this will be in its favour for longer term residuals (parts, dealers, garages) and consequently insurance (if it's like ID3 I'd spec'd to insure)
infotainment : one I have, has no native nav system, so using CarPlay, reversing cam and 360camera seemed good.

Didn't try out emergency braking for pedestrians ... but was surprised in forward parking situations did not seem to provide warning of bollards approaching at corners
(expected it to beep, or maybe brake, but because I couldn't see bonnet edge didn't push it to see if it would stop on its own)

e:lordrobs reply, to me, seems very relevant too for any daily winter commuting situation
lordrobs said:
The Vauxhall app is a POS, connects once in a blue moon if you are lucky. Hopefully you'll have the option to set pre-conditioning from the climate menu within the car. As long as there is enough juice in the battery (or connected to a charger) the car will fire up HV battery and get the car to 21'C for your designated time.
Click to expand...

e2: if you open door during parking manouvering to check kerb/dividing line distance it puts car in park - annoying
 
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The thing is I live in Manchester and the only Tesla charge location anywhere close to me is Trafford Park. Which is very busy, anytime I've been there there's a queue of DPD electric vans, Teslas and other EVs.
 
SkyTerran said:
I'm looking to purchase my first EV with a £13K budget and need advice on the 2021 Vauxhall Mokka Electric. My typical usage is:
  • Daily 40-mile round trip commute on congested highways
  • Usually drive alone or with one passenger
  • No home charging available, but access to new Shell public chargers nearby
  • Safety is my priority, especially automatic emergency braking for pedestrians
  • Fun driving dynamics aren't important to me
Would the Mokka Electric suit these requirements?
Click to expand...

with no access to home charging, I'd say it's not a good idea to go electric.

One of the major points of electric is cheap overnight rate charging. If your public charging only, it will get frustrating sitting at chargers, waiting. Also the cost of public charging can be like 70/80p a kw.... My overnight charging on octopus is like 7p, a tenth of the cost of public charging.
 
The Mokka is a built on a pretty terrible EV platform unfortunately.

It's built on the Stellantis CMP 50kwh platform which is really inefficient compared to others, i've heard people struggling to get over 2.5miles per kwh in the winter which gives around 100 miles of usable range in a car like that.

Contrast to something like a Hyundai Ioniq or Kona which will probably get 3.5 to 4 miles per kwh in the winter
 
SkyTerran said:
The thing is I live in Manchester and the only Tesla charge location anywhere close to me is Trafford Park. Which is very busy, anytime I've been there there's a queue of DPD electric vans, Teslas and other EVs.
Click to expand...

Why don't you budget 10k instead and get an ICE car a put the rest in your back pocket for fuel as without home charging EV's are really not the place for you at the moment I would say.
 
Wouldn't bother, imagine needing to chare right now. 0C outside, sat in your car for an hour to pay more than liquid fuel. Tedious and expensive
jpaul said:
From mokkas 50kw battery I drove 100miles, mostly A roads 55/60, it said it had 60miles left, air temp about 2C, cabin 25 . so 3m/KWh 'winter'

OP's shell local looks more problematic shell look like they are genuinely 2x tesla/ionity eg. https://leccy.net/charging/public/ultra#kwh , https://leccy.net/charging/public/rapid#kwh
maybe market will fix these discrepancies, though
Click to expand...
2.6-3m/kwh winter, 4+m/kwh summer is pretty much rule of thumb for most normal single motor EVs to be honest.
 
per OP if the 40mile commute is congested/urban then the ICE car might be doing <30mpg, so the fuel comparison is more favourable offsetting more expensive public charging,

which unfortunately I wouldn't have with a 60mile round, also I have few local public chargers,
during commute could drive to wherever Cambridge supercharger is, or some limited work charging, but takes time, maybe waiting too.

I could have talked myself into a 2nd hand ev puchase (but just went ice) from the incredible 2nd hand costs of car alone, thinking that prices can't drop further for eu manufactured ev's,
(versus chinese) and sell it on if it proved expensive impractical, but would have been able to use granny charging, and,
maybe doing some DIY in summertime to avoid £3/4K laying a big cable to garage would cost.
 
SkyTerran said:
I'm looking to purchase my first EV with a £13K budget and need advice on the 2021 Vauxhall Mokka Electric. My typical usage is:
  • Daily 40-mile round trip commute on congested highways
  • Usually drive alone or with one passenger
  • No home charging available, but access to new Shell public chargers nearby
  • Safety is my priority, especially automatic emergency braking for pedestrians
  • Fun driving dynamics aren't important to me
Would the Mokka Electric suit these requirements?
Click to expand...

If you can use a 3 pin plug and extension to charge it (ie, not in a flat or 10th floor apartment etc) then it’ll still work out cheaper at 32p per kWh but will be very slow charging. You’ll be able to refill your 40 miles every day between getting home and going again in the morning. An EV tariff could reduce 5 hours of that to 7p.

It’s not as good as having a wall charger, but then you’re also saving yourself a grand on getting one of them installed too.

If you HAVE to rely on public charging, it’ll definitely work out more expensive, although it will take a long time to come up to the grand that a home charger will cost to install.

Summary - it could work, just be wary of slow charging times. It won’t be as cheap as it COULD be, but could be cheaper than an ICE.
 
I would say yes, apart from the lack of home charging. I wouldn't consider an EV without it. You lose the main benefits of owning an EV, namely cheap and convenient charging.

I've had a Corsa electric for 4 years now and it's pretty good. It's the same platform as the mokka (we did actually try the mokka but it felt exactly the same size inside but was quite a lot more).

For the first two years we owned it, my wife did 50 miles a day commuting in Manchester, mainly M60 and A roads, and it was perfect for that. It averages around 4m/kWh in summer and 2.5m/kWh in the coldest of winter.

If I was in the market for an other EV, I wouldn't consider anything from Stella this. Nothing to do with the EV, more the build quality of everything bar the electric motors and it's parts.

I'd probably looks at a Hyundai Kona if I had a similar budget and a similar position.
 
haven't looked where stellantis stands on fast charger pre-conditioning, but lack of it on older ID3 would have been an ignominy (w/o home charging)
so even on my bi-weekly hr trip to the swimming pool I don't know whether nearby 88p/instavolt would be fast.
 
Have you driven one yet?

We had this and a corsa for a couple of months when the ID3 was in for repair…hideous thing!

Found it really uneconomical on the mileage front and really was affected by colder weather. Also just didn’t like how it drove.

At £13k is a VW ID3 in reach? Or a Kona maybe?

Is there anyway you could maybe rent an EV for a week or 2? We wouldn’t have an EV if we couldn’t charge at home mind…we love the electric but when we first got an EV and had to charge in public I would have handed the car back as even just waiting 2 weeks for the charger it was not very practical.
 
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13K should just about get you into an ID3, much better than the Mokka all round. Having said that I'd be very wary of getting an EV if you can't charge at home.
 
id3 had been my pick and even though mokka like id3 it doesn't have preconditioning (to help without fast home charging)
id3 looks as though it has better charging curves

when I'd considered 2nd hand id3 high speed charging comments at lower temps - eg V were off putting though .. it's been sub 10 during my mokka trial.


When cold the DCFC is reduced and the waste heat from driving does not warm the battery much beyond 32F where the battery heater shuts off:
At 32F (0C) max out at 50kw
At 54F (12°C) battery it will max out 65Kw
63F (17°C) it will go up to 100+Kw
68F (20°C) will deliver max output if EA is actually capable delivering rated power on the box at <20% SOC
 
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