From £26,1958

The return of a true fast Vauxhall sub-brand – on an electric compact crossover

With its beefy stance and punchy electric performance, the new Vauxhall Mokka GSE looks like a refreshingly old school arrival in hot hatch-loving Britain.

All right, it’s more crossover than hatchback, but there are genuinely lots of ‘hot variant’ things to say about this GSE.

Standing for Grand Sport Electric, this is an initialism that Opel has used before and is a mash-up of the old GSi and GTE badges previously applied to hot Vauxhalls.

And GSE is very much going to be a true performance sub-brand, they say, like VXR, GSi, GTE and others before it (Vauxhall has had a few).

There is an Astra GSE already, but that’s basically a trim level. This is a performance statement, and it feels perfectly crafted for Britain.

Advertisement
Back to top

The reason is simple. Like the many hot hatches to have topped UK charts in years gone by, the Mokka GSE is a 277bhp performance version of an affordable small (ish) car, the Mokka Electric. While it’s obviously no Corsa VXR, in today’s world it is relatively compact, at 4.15m long.

It's priced at £35,495 (including the UK government's Electric Car Grant), which makes it £7000 cheaper than the Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica Veloce with which it shares many underlying parts, and it even undercuts its sister from another mister, the Abarth 600e, by £2500.

That makes Vauxhall’s take on this 277bhp Stellantis Group base the most affordable of the bunch - and therefore very much in keeping with the brand's sporting past.

DESIGN & STYLING

Vauxhall Mokka GSe review 2026 002

The Mokka GSE is essentially your regular electric Mokka given a makeover, and while it’s far more for handling than being strictly about appearance, meaning it potentially qualifies as a Q-car, there are some telling design changes that those in the know can’t miss.

On the outside there are fatter bumpers, new grilles and some 20in alloy wheels, which sit with a healthy amount of negative camber for proper hot hatch (or crossover) stance.

Necessity dictated that there were new front strut knuckles, but pleasingly they're also lighter than the standard ones.

You will also see some yellow flashes and GSE lettering, plus there’s a standard black roof (a no-cost option to delete) and an optional black bonnet, like on old Opel and Vauxhall rally cars, for £250.

The significant changes are under the skin. The GSE runs on bigger wheels and 10mm-lower suspension than the standard Mokka.

Spring rates are up 49% front and 35% rear; there’s a Torsen locking front differential (with 36% lock-up under acceleration and 34% under braking); and there's a new 30.8mm anti-roll bar for the torsion-beam rear suspension, increasing rear roll stiffness by 189% and, combined with the front stiffening, increasing overall roll stiffness by 48%.

There are new knuckles on the MacPherson-strut front suspension too, albeit not like those ‘Hiperstrut’ ones the old Astra VXR had to reduce torque steer. They’re just designed to be a bit lighter and create enough space for the big wheels to clear the lowered body, while increasing Ackermann angle and letting the wheels turn far enough to retain a 10.41m turning circle.

Gosh, all this suspension nerd talk: it’s like 2005 all over again.

There’s more. The steering rack is new and has a 14.5:1 ratio, increased from 16.2:1 on the standard Mokka. Steering is 2.7 turns between locks.

Braking is by 380mm ventilated front discs (and 268mm rear discs) and, if you drive in the sportiest of three drive modes, it does no regenerative braking, to improve brake pedal feel – a trait it shares with the Lotus Evija hypercar.

Tyres are 225/40 Michelin Pilot Sport EVs, with Goodyear Eagle F1s a £100 option. They extend the WLTP range from 201 to 209 miles… and we’re back in 2026.

There are a couple of other EV numbers to knock off too: the battery is 54kWh (total) and can charge at a rate of 100kW. While less than a third of what the market’s best can achieve these days, that is actually competitive, even when you consider alternative hot EVs from outside the stable, like the Alpine A290. A 10-80% charge will take about half an hour.

INTERIOR

Vauxhall Mokka GSe review 2026 009

Inside, the sporting makeover includes bucket-style seats, Alcantara door cards, a heavily flattened steering wheel and yellow stitching but not much else.

While that is enough to lift its ambience over the standard Mokka, in relatively straightforward hot-version fashion, it means your eyes mostly look forward at a grey, dull dash.

Touchscreen controls abound, of course, but real buttons remain for the heating and ventilation.

That said, the new seats are a particular highlight, offering excellent lateral support without being too heavily bolstered, so you should be comfortable and snug whatever your size.

We prefer a round steering wheel but this one is thin of rim, which is pleasing.

And the rest of the accommodation is standard Mokka stuff. There’s adequate rear seat room – head room good, leg room fine – but a below-average boot for the class. If indeed there is ‘a class’ for a really unusual kind of car.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Vauxhall Mokka GSe review 2026 021

We will touch on the straight-line performance of the Mokka GSE here but make most of the driving impressions in the next section, because what happens under acceleration and braking is intrinsically linked to this car’s fun-to-drive character.

With 277bhp, it is of course quick in a straight line, despite the 1596kg kerb weight – relatively heavy for a car of this size, albeit not necessarily for an EV. It’s good for a 0-62mph dash of 5.9sec, they say, which feels totally believable to us. It scrabbles off the line, proper Torsen limited-slip differential splitting the torque, and dashes up to motorway speed with no perceivable fade in power.

There are Eco, Normal and Sport drive modes. Eco is treacly but throttle response is great in either Normal or Sport.

The throttle mapping and delivery smoothness are both very good, as you might expect from a single-motor electric drivetrain, with a bit of excess tyre noise here and there – as might also be allowable, given this car’s 20in wheels and its performance intent.

RIDE & HANDLING

Vauxhall Mokka GSe review 2026 022

On the continent, it was evidently clear that the Mokka has an extremely good chassis – one that’s superbly well-controlled and allows a modest amount of roll to lean against but which, once settled into a corner, is fairly unflappable. But on British roads, this sporting ability does come at a cost to ride comfort, because the Mokka GSE can feel a bit busy over scruffy Tarmac.

That said, the hydraulic bump stops do an impressive job of softening the edges of potholes and speed humps, and as is often the case with these types of cars, the GSE flows better over the road the faster you’re going.

I haven't yet driven the Abarth 600e or Alfa Romeo Junior Elettrica Veloce, both of which are related to this car, but I hear good things about both of them too.

The steering is medium-heavy weighted and very incisive. There’s road feel, too, with some actual old-school torque-steering nibbles at the wheel when the differential hooks up on the way out of corners. It’s so good at doing this that you quickly learn that half- and even full-throttle corner exits are possible, even when you still have steering lock applied.

As far as front ends go, this front-wheel-drive crossover is brilliantly entertaining.

On circuit, if you give the Mokka GSE a large bung, it will even try to move around. Just a bit – not to old fast Ford or Renaultsport levels of agility.

Braking feel is fine in the Normal and Eco drive modes but takes on a firmer, reliable response in Sport mode. That’s partly explained by the reduction in regenerative braking that’s automatically set when you switch to Sport. This means there’s less energy recovery, but it does mean the Mokka GSE feels more natural when you drive it enthusiastically.

As a result, it’s exactly as promised: like a proper hot hatch, only taller.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Vauxhall Mokka GSe review 2026 001

The official range of the Mokka GSE may be 201 miles, but drive it hard in Sport mode and you will reduce that range to more like 150 miles.

We saw 170 miles of projected range during his continental mountain route on the European launch and about the same during spirited but not frantic driving along a British B-road.

Rapid charging at 100kW might not sound like loads but practically is usually enough.

Its current price (November 2025) of £35,495 includes the present Electric Car Grant. That may change, but for now all electric Vauxhalls are eligible for the full grant and are beneath the 'luxury car tax' bracket.

And if you buy an electric Vauxhall, they will give you 50,000 Tesco Clubcard points. Not a thrilling incentive, perhaps, but a sensible one.

VERDICT

Vauxhall Mokka GSe review 2026 026

Vauxhall is really keen to link this new hot derivative to its performance cars of old, but with the added challenge of range (or a lack of the stuff) in an electrified world.

For those hoping to find a 277bhp hot hatch on stilts to venture long distances in, the Mokka GSE and its 150-ish miles of real world range probably isn’t it. But for those who either want a mostly urban car that can occasionally stretch a big fat grin across your face when you do open the taps, or for those who live beside their driving road of choice and can therefore easily handle a sub-200-mile range, the Mokka GSE is more than just a bit appealing.

Mokka too big for you? Sit tight, because this 277bhp GSE setup is being shoehorned into the Corsa next…

That front-axle bite and punchy electric motor make for a genuinely exciting car to drive enthusiastically, while relative practicality mean this could feasibly be a small-ish car to handle young family duties. Albeit with a jigglier ride than the standard Mokka that may wake up the baby, rather than rock it to sleep.

That, by the way, is something another hot Vauxhall from earlier this century, the Zafira VXR, did very well. Unlike that car, this is no straight-line one-hit-wonder. Underneath, the Mokka GSE is a very fine-handling car.

The fact that it doesn’t stand out on the road in a design sense versus its Stellantis-group siblings only adds to its Q-car appeal.

Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes.