Vauxhall Ampera-2012 European Car of the Year (217-314mpg)

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wemorgan

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Vauxhall Ampera is 2012 European Car of the Year | Automotive & Motoring News | Car Magazine Online

Fuel consumption, extra-urban driving mpg (litres/100km) 217.3 (1.3)
Fuel consumption, urban driving mpg (litres/100km) 313.9 (0.9)
Fuel consumption, combined mpg (litres/100km) 235.4 (1.2)

It may have the wrong badge for some and be expensive to most people, but those economy figures are a real step change from most other cars on the road.
 
To be fair, the consumption assumes that the battery is fully charged at the start, so I suspect they are best case figures.

Never the less, this has to be the future of electric cars, all the benefits of electricity, with no fear of running out.

Volume production should make it affordable in a few years.
 
I assume these figures are based on a sub 40 mile range afterwhich the petrol generator will start consuming a lot more?
 
I assume these figures are based on a sub 40 mile range afterwhich the petrol generator will start consuming a lot more?

Yes, I think you're right.

Urban cycle test explained
The maximum speed in the test is 31 miles per hour (mph) or 50 kilometres per hour (km/h), average speed 12 mph (19 km/h) and the distance covered is 2.5 miles (4 kilometres).

Extra-urban cycle test explained
The maximum speed in the test is 75 mph (120 km/h), average speed is 39 mph (63 km/h) and the distance covered is 4.3 miles (7 kilometres).

Combined fuel consumption figure
The combined fuel consumption figure is the urban and the extra-urban cycle together. It is an average of the two tests, weighted by the distances covered in each one.

So are the mpg figures then an equivalent mpg rate (costs of electricity vs. fuel)?
 
Won't win prettiest car of the year though will it ? :crazy:
 
So are the mpg figures then an equivalent mpg rate (costs of electricity vs. fuel)?

Not sure, but remember Top Gear running a Toyota Prius and a BMW M3 in formation round 10 laps of their track ... the M3 returned a better MPG figure:

143 Top Gear - Toyota Prius BMW M3 Fuel - Car Videos on StreetFire

Great quote from Jeremy: "It isn't what you drive that matters. It's how you drive it. That is everything."

Without power recovered from regenerative braking a hybrid just becomes a petrol car carrying a big payload of batteries once the charge has run out.
 
Without power recovered from regenerative braking a hybrid just becomes a petrol car carrying a big payload of batteries once the charge has run out.

There are also different flavours of hybrid; series and parallel.

I believe the Ampera is a series hybrid, so the engine can only charge the batteries acting as a range extender. This has benefits over the more common parallel hybrid where the engine physically drives the wheels.

But most journeys are easily less than 50 miles, so for those people the batteries are sufficient.
 
How much is the car though compared to an equivalent fossil burner and how long would it take in order to recoup that extra upfront outlay?
 
How much is the car though compared to an equivalent fossil burner and how long would it take in order to recoup that extra upfront outlay?

£37k I gather.

Ampera @240mpg = 3ppm

diesel car @60mpg = 12ppm

100k miles = £9k savings on fuel
(plus savings on tax and maybe servicing?)

The numbers don't make it financial sense to me - but there's always a cost of being an early adopter of new technology.

edit: the price gap may widen as fuel prices increase over time - but who's to say electricity prices wont also.
 
There are also different flavours of hybrid; series and parallel.

I believe the Ampera is a series hybrid, so the engine can only charge the batteries acting as a range extender. This has benefits over the more common parallel hybrid where the engine physically drives the wheels.

For longer trips though there's no escaping the fact that you are carrying a big payload of batteries that a conventional car doesn't have
However, when driving with the battery depleted and the petrol engine running much more, fuel consumption rises dramatically. In this scenario, we measured the equivalent of 70.6mpg in urban use, 51.4mpg extra-urban and 43.5mpg motorway in our tests. The overall tested average is 51.4mpg - worse than many diesel-engined large cars

Vauxhall Ampera is urban fuel champion - January - 2012 - Which? News
 
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For longer trips though there's no escaping the fact that you are carrying a big payload of batteries that a conventional car doesn't have

Yes, that remains true sadly.

It's a case of balancing costs vs. practicality. There is a large % of people who would potentially save money running an electric car, but not at £36k list price I admit.

There are people who own 300bhp cars but mostly only use 50bhp and similarly people who have estate cars, but only use the full capacity once a month. We've got comfortable having spare capacity. But as that spare capacity beings to cost more and more people will question how much they really want it.
 
Did I mention I managed to get 5 people into my Smart the other week? :D
 
Did I mention I managed to get 5 people into my Smart the other week? :D

Ah so you're Sp!ke

vern_troyer_and_his_women_02.jpg
 

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