Asked how the GSE will fit in with the rest of the Mokka EV range for fleet, Douglass said: “GSE will appeal to salary sacrifice buyers. Ultimately salary sacrifice buyers are technically retail customers. They’ve moved into a new channel on the back of a huge tax incentive from the government – because of the minimal BIK that they have to pay. So, on that basis, there’s no reason why the Mokka GSE, which for me is a very credible retail proposition, will not sell well in salary sacrifice. Especially if you look at the pricing structure, and the fact it gets the government grant, it’s really attractive.
“If you take Vauxhall’s entire range, we haven’t got a single car above £40,000, so we’re making sure all of our customers avoid the expensive luxury car supplement. All our electric cars are below the £37,000 threshold to attract the government Electric Car Grant at entry. The only slight difference for us, is that we’ve launched the Mokka GSE with the knowledge of the grant – whereas our sister brands came earlier. So, we clearly made some pricing decisions to make sure it was included in the grant. What it does mean at this price, is the GSE is £1,000 cheaper than the Ultimate spec range-topper. This looks strange, but is the consequence of the grant, and our commitment to make sure our cars qualify for it.
“The government grant works on a combination of model and powertrain, so because the GSE has a new powertrain, we couldn’t just rely on the Mokka Electric’s qualification – we had to make sure it qualified in its own right. The pricing structure is aggressive, but given the performance and styling of the car, it has got all the right attributes to be an end user success.”
“I think for traditional true fleet customers, probably the longer-range version of the Mokka is more likely to suit their needs.”
We moved on to ask Douglass if sal-sac GSE buyers would be new to the Vauxhall brand?
He said: “The GSE is 100% a conquest car. The whole premise of the GSE sub-brand is to add some energy, passion, and emotion back to Vauxhall that we used to have with VXR – with the explicit purpose of bringing new customers into the brand.
“So, our position since late 2022, early 2023, when we started to ramp up for the ZEV mandate, has been very rational. It has been all about electric accessibility from pricing actions, and electric accessibility through our campaign for better infrastructure, with the Electric Streets of Britain campaign.
“I think that campaign has done a really good job of moving traditional Vauxhall customers from ICE to electric. What it hasn’t done, to be critical, is move new buyers to the brand, who want to go electric with Vauxhall.”
