The Ampera's battery lasts 50 miles and an internal combustion engine gives the car a further range of about 310 miles
Fear that electric vehicles will just run out of power before drivers reach their destination – or "range anxiety" as it is known – has long been one of the most powerful arguments against electric cars by critics. But the engineers behind the new Vauxhall Ampera think they're just about to kill that argument.
Due on sale in the UK by spring 2012, the Ampera is the first "range-extended EV", using technology that turns the principle of the Toyota Prius's hybrid engine on its head. Where the hybrid ran an internal combustion engine (ICE) and backed it up with electricity from a battery, the Ampera runs an electric motor from a battery and backs it up with an ICE. On battery power alone, the car has a range of 50 miles; after that the ICE kicks in and powers the electric motor, which gives the car a further range of about 310 miles.
Critics have pointed out that, at a rough estimate, this means that after the battery is depleted, the combustion engineis only managing a poor 35-40 miles per gallon. Vauxhall admit that this may be the case, but point out when you combine this with the electric engine, under Europe's rules which look at the average use of a car, you reach a much more eco-friendly 175mpg. The carbon emissions are similarly impressive, at 40g CO2 per km , compared to the UK's new car average of 149.5g in 2009. "In reality though," admits Vauxhall's Ian Allen, "it depends completely on the driver and how you plan to use the car."
Journalists were given their first change to drive the European production model this week. The car has been on sale as the Chevrolet Volt in the US and according to Will Dron, editor of The Charging Point electric car news site, interest has been steady, rather than meteoric. However in Europe Vauxhall claim that pre-sale interest has been enormous, and they have increased their initial roll-out from 8000 to 10,000. "It's not one of these boring eco-ethics cars," says Enno Fuchs, director of Vauxhalls E-mobility programme. "This car is going to be huge for us."
At £28,995, including the government £5000 grant, the price however, may be a stumbling point for many. That's a few thousand more than the Nissan Leaf, which sells for £25,990 including the grant.
But EV evangelist and writer Robert Llewellyn, the actor who played Kryten in Red Dwarf, is impressed. "As a way of encouraging more people to use EVs it's faultless," he says. "I wouldn't buy it myself, because I don't ever want to use petrol again. But for anyone who isn't already in love with EVs, it's a brilliant way of doing things."
So what's it like to drive?
The Vauxhall Ampera is the first EV or hybrid – apart from the screamingly unaffordable Tesla – to really make me laugh. Not at first; when my co-driver and I set off, in miserable rain along a Dutch motorway, the experience was, as you'd probably expect, pretty flat.
But even then we were commenting on how unstressful it was to drive. Here we were, on the wrong side of the road, with terrible conditions, on the dullest possible road, in a car neither of us had ever driven. But within a few minutes we were deep in chat, having a good play with the full-on control panel, and already becoming fond of the Ampera.
And then on the second outing we discovered sport mode, and that was it, really; we bounced around the countryside, took on the peculiar Dutch roundabout system and won, and generally had a bit of a laugh.
In normal mode the Ampera is a more mature (and slightly duller) ride. But in sport mode it wisely takes advantage of the spectactular torque you get in an EV engine, and just whooshes around like a kid. It's laden with gidgets and widgets for the most toddler-like of attention-spans, with no less than two dashboard screens showing all sorts of combinations of power flow, energy use and a floating ball that lets you know how eco-friendly your driving is.
But it's also got a great big boot (300 litres), proper back seats, and a vast amount of legroom in the front. The battery lies like a backbone down the middle of the car where you would usually have the gear box anyway, so it takes up the least possible amount of room. And there is none of the whine from the engine that made some of the earlier EVs so annoying; it's just peaceful in the same way a luxury car is peaceful.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2011/jul/15/vauxhaul-ampera
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