Some thoughts on the new Vauxhall Ampera

Update - 11 Feb 2010:
This post has been updated as I misquoted the UK price of a Vauxhall Ampera. The list price is £33,995, and the government's subsidy of £5,000 means the customer pays £28,995.

From the Vauxhall website (http://www.vauxhall-ampera.co.uk)
We estimate that an extended range electric car will save about 1,700 litres of petrol per year based on 40 miles of daily driving (15,000 miles per year).

Or if you drive 60 miles per day (21,900 miles per year) you could save about 1,900 litres of petrol annually (compared to a vehicle that averages 36.2 mpg).

The Ampera can be plugged into a standard 240-volt/13 A household outlet for charging. We estimate that it will cost less than £0.85 at night for a full charge that will deliver up to 50 miles of electric driving.*

* Based on UK average prices for fuel and electricity. Those may vary by market.

From the Vauxhall Ampera Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/VauxhallAmpera)

The Ampera is always powered by the electric motors that drive the front wheels of the vehicle and can travel up to 50 miles - dependant upon the way it is driven - on a single battery charge. When the battery charge has been depleted, the vehicle switches into Extended Range mode whereby the 1.4 litre engine kicks in to generate electricity to continue to drive the wheels for up to another 310 miles on a full tank of fuel - a tank takes 35 litres of petrol. When the Ampera is in Extended Range mode the engine will run at a series of constant RPM depending upon the amount of electricity determined by the vehicle's requirements, e.g. at 30 mph the engine will run at a lower constant RPM to when the car is driven at 70mph.

The generator does not recharge the battery. The way to recharge the battery is to plug the car it into a 13A socket and fully recharge it in less than four hours.


Some of my thoughts

1) Running costs

The fuel tank takes 35 litres and the car can do up to 310 miles on a tank. That is... about 40mpg. On a 350-mile journey, the first 40 or so miles are on the battery charge, then the remainder on 35 litres of petrol. At £1.30 a litre, that is £45.50. There is also the cost of the battery recharge, £0.85 approximately. Total is £46.35.

My Skoda Octavia diesel can do 55mpg. So on a 350 miles journey it uses 29 litres, which at £1.33 a litre is £38.57. And no battery recharge cost. 

£46.35 v £38.57 for the same journey, hmmm.

The cost of a new Ampera is to be £33,995 including VAT after before the Government's subsidy of £5,000. After subsidy the price is £28,995.

A new Skoda Octavia L&K 2.0 litre diesel estate would cost me today £23,590 including VAT. For that, you get a car with a much higher spec than the Ampera.

Let's say I DO save 1,700 litres of fuel a year using an Ampera compared to my Octavia. At £1.33 a litre for diesel, that is the equivalent of £2,261. Just on that alone, I'd only recoup the extra purchase cost over four two+ years. If fuel costs go up, which they will, the break-even point comes down well below four two years. When I say "just on that alone", I mean I have no figures on comparisons of servicing costs and tax/insurance between the two. I expect these costs to be less for the Ampera than the Octavia.

2) Emissions

Something else to consider. During that four year period, the Ampera will generate much less greenhouse gases than the Octavia.

Vauxhall claim:

Preliminary Fuel Consumption / CO2 emissions according to regulation EC 715/2007 and regulation EC 692/2008 (weighted, combined): 175mpg / 40 g CO2/km

(This is on a journey that includes solely electric running and also running in ER mode.)

Skoda claim:

2.0 Litre TDI 140ps diesel = 129 g CO2/km


So for a 350 mile journey (563 km), the Ampera emits 22,520g CO2 and the Octavia 72,627g CO2, or over three times as much. 

I think I would prefer to have NO emissions!