Opel Mokka-e
Opel was so surprised by the interest in its new top model that the car manufacturer is now even forced to terminate contracts that have already been concluded with hundreds of customers.
(Photo: Opel)
Munich Opel boss Michael Lohscheller is dissatisfied. From his point of view, a market share of just 3.9 percent in Europe by no means corresponds to the claims of the venerable vehicle manufacturer from Rüsselsheim. As early as the summer of last year, Lohscheller asked his team to sharpen the brand as quickly as possible.
“To do this, we have to bring the most important car of the past few years to customers perfectly: The launch of the new Mocha has to be right,” said Lohscheller in an internal circular to his employees in August 2020. The compact SUV will initiate the “trend reversal” in terms of market shares, as it is symbolic of the future of Opel – “no more and no less”, stated the manager.
The model has been available for order since the end of September and the first cars are to be delivered in March 2021. However, Opel is still a long way from smoothly handing over the mocha to customers – at least with the fully electric version of the model. The demand for the Mocha-e is so great that the production capacities for the entire year 2021 are already exhausted, according to corporations and dealers alike.
Opel was so surprised by the interest in its new top model that the car manufacturer is now even forced to terminate contracts that have already been concluded with hundreds of customers. In a letter to a buyer of the Mokka-e, which is available to the Handelsblatt, it is said that his order “had to be canceled due to this current overbooking”. Opel could no longer deliver the ordered model this year. Even at a later point in time, no delivery date is currently foreseeable.
“Some variants of the Mokka-e are already sold out in the current model year until September 2021,” Opel confirmed on request. Other equipment lines of the Mokka-e as well as the gasoline and diesel variants can still be ordered.
Frustration in Rüsselsheim
Although Opel is trying to limit the damage, it is offering the affected mocha-e buyers an alternative, for example, the small electric car Corsa-e with top equipment at bargain prices. But many customers are annoyed and do not want to wait indefinitely for the Mocha-e or switch to another model from Opel.
In Rüsselsheim, the frustration is therefore noticeably great. After years of sluggish sales, the company is happy to finally have a model in its portfolio that is enjoying great popularity, according to corporate circles. The fact that the Mocha-e cannot be delivered to the desired extent is bitter and the cancellations are a painful, even one-time process.
Opel produces the Mokka-e in a plant of the parent company PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, DS) in Poissy, France. The production capacities for the model should be in the higher four-digit unit range per year. An insider admits that the calculations were far too conservative here. Because as a result of the state innovation bonus for electric cars, the Mokka-e was recently available in Germany from 23,400 euros instead of 33,000 euros.
Behind the scenes, many car managers consider the lavish subsidies of up to 9,000 euros for all-electric cars and 6,500 euros for plug-in hybrids to be “indecently high”, as a manager at a southern German manufacturer says. In the short term, the subsidies are boosting sales of electric cars in this country and helping the ailing industry. In two or three years, the subsidized e-car boom could become a problem for industry.
The reason: The subsidies reduce the sales prices of new electric vehicles so much that the residual values of many vehicles come under massive pressure. The result: used Stromers could soon hardly be cheaper than brand-new ones. “If something does not change in this situation soon, the used car market for e-cars will collapse in the short or medium term,” warn the experts from the leasing comparison platform Vehiculum.
According to calculations by the Berlin start-up, some manufacturers and their trading partners are even threatened with negative business with individual models, i.e. negative leasing rates. Opel and its dealerships with the Mokka-e are spared such a debacle. But the business with the electric SUV is unlikely to be too profitable for the Hessians and their partners. According to Vehiculum, the difference between the calculated residual value for the Mocha-e after 24 months and the current new sale price minus subsidies and discounts is only a modest 936 euros.
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