Vauxhall boss: “We need to make vehicles with greater appeal”

Vauxhall has given its designers "a free remit" to overhaul the styling of its models, according to UK managing director Steve Norman, as the brand looks to bring back a golden age of design.

Norman said at today's Autocar Business Live online seminar: "We need to make vehicles that have much greater sex appeal than we have done for the last couple of decades. It's a good while, for example, since we've had a car like the Calibra."

Talking about the new Vauxhall Mokka, Norman said: "It is essential that we give our designers a free remit to get us back on the front foot, which is what [chief designer] Mark Adams has done with the new Mokka. There are cues which relate to the heritage of the brand but, regardless, it is a good-looking car. It's a good long time since we've said that about a Vauxhall."

A key design feature of the Mokka, which is offered in petrol, diesel and electric variants, is the new Vizor front-end design, which will be rolled out across the rest of the British brand's range in due course.

On the topic of evolving models, Norman added: "My experience with volume car manufacturers is that every couple of product cycles, there needs to be a major change in design. When you evolve design on a kaizen basis for too many product cycles, eventually the customer turns away and looks for something fresher. I think there are all sorts of examples of that in the industry today."