The newest entrant to our long-term fleet is the fully electric Vauxhall Mokka-e. Natalie Middleton prepares for a steep learning curve.

We’ve gone green with our new long-term Mokka-e

P11d (BiK): £34,880 (0%) Test Range / MPkWh: 201 / 3.2

We’ve gone electric for one of our latest new long-termer arrivals, with our new Vauxhall Mokka-e small SUV replacing our previous Suzuki Swace hybrid estate.

When you include our prior Vauxhall Combo Life long-termer last year, it means we’ve gone from diesel to hybrid to fully electric in some 12 months.

It’s a journey that many readers and their fleet drivers are starting to do too – and some are cutting out the hybrid middle man.

It’s a switch I’ve been very much keen to embrace. While I’ve tested electric cars short term, this is my first pure electric long-termer and comes at an ideal time, as the fleet sector ramps up the pace on EV adoption in the countdown to the 2030 ICE ban.

And it’s also been a rather opportune time as our Mokka-e arrived just before the fuel panic-buying chaos, leaving me able to join the smug EV driver club.

Launched autumn 2020 as part of the second-gen Mokka line-up, the Mokka-e marked the first all-electric variant of Vauxhall’s smallest SUV. The sister model to the 2008, the Mokka is built on the Stellantis Common Modular Platform (CMP), opening up all-electric options alongside petrol and diesel.

It features a single front-mounted electric motor producing 136hp and 260Nm of torque and with a sole 50kWh battery option that gives it a 201-mile official WLTP range (but more in Eco mode). It also has a 0-60mph of 8.7 seconds – and it can certainly get a shift on when required.

The Mokka-e also comes with a standard 11kW on-board charger and supports up to 100kW rapid DC charging, with a 0-80% charge taking 30 minutes.

Its rapid charging capability is something that I’ve already been making the most of as I don’t, for the moment, have a home charger.

So I’m reliant on the local infrastructure and I’ve been shocked how little of that there is. Luckily, there are a number of hotels nearby and I’ve become reliant on them. The battery is also guaranteed by an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty.

It’s been clear right from the start that the Mokka-e is a striking-looking car that turns heads – particularly in its White Jade paintwork and with the black/red detailing and its 18-inch black/silver alloy wheels. The kids and I were particularly delighted to see the same colour combo used for the Mokka-e on display at the Stellantis stand at Carfest this summer.

The interior looks good too – an expanse of curved dashboard with a 10-inch colour touchscreen, flat-bottomed leather-covered steering wheel, red stitching and alloy sports pedals.

Our sporty SRi Nav features acres of kit, including a Multimedia Navi Pro system with sat nav, front and rear parking distance sensors and a panoramic rear-view camera and 12-inch digital instrument panel.

In fact, there’s not many options offered across the whole range and those that are, are heavily focused on customisation, such as paintwork choices, a white roof and a black bonnet. The only add-ons fitted to ours are the White Jade paintwork (£420) and the £700 IntelliLux Matrix LED headlights with advanced forward lighting, which I’ve been very impressed with so far – more on those later.

All in all, it looks like the right car at the right time.

P11d (BiK): Was £34,880 now £31,880 excl. PiCG (1%) Range: 201 miles for our model Test Range / mpkWh: 145 / NA