We have just spent a year living with a Vauxhall Ampera. Ed Keohane takes us through what he experienced over the past 12 months. Subscribe: / whatcar Like us on Facebook: / whatcar Follow us on Twitter: / whatcar www.whatcar.com
Cant feel the change? it does not drive on the petrol it just charges/supplies the motors.Hate people who are "experts" getting stuff wrong do your job proper,dont talk crap.
knightrider5188 He couldn't enter the full postcode because when he entered se6, the screen changes to the selection screen and when he makes his selection, it jumps to the street name field which prevents entry of full postcode. This needs a software update, not sure if it's even possible for this car or if an update even exists, i know other cars do so via CD or USB. Postcode search is such a basic and fundamental aspect of the NAV system that it's surprising that the manufacturers made this mistake.
Daniel Edwin No. why would I need to replace it? It’s good for at least 150,000 miles! Owned it for a couple of years now. Up to 53,000 miles now. No problems whatsoever.
@@Simon-wn2id Have you experienced the front bumper/skirt grazing speed bumps when driving it? Had a test drive of 1 over the Weekend, and this seems like it'd be a real problem, if I went for it 🤔
The far future does not look rosy, does it. As oil supplies diminish, so prices will go up. This will lead to electricity prices going up too, and at £40,000 now we are looking at a seriously expensive motor! So what happens when the choice goes away? The prices will escalate! So unless you are rich, you'll walk!
This car does not make Economial Sence most people use £1000 a year in fuel, to pay £35000 for a car and claiming savings is a bit ridiculous , you would need 15 years to get your Extra £15.000 investment back for what seems a £20.000 car
i spend over £1000 a month on fuel the car is 22000 with government incentive, the car will pay for itself in 2 years and it is capable of ZERO emissions. so no congestion charge. and no weezy children smog and pollution.
fradaja based on your fuel costs £1000 a month and type of vehicle I've rough estimated you travel around 7000 Miles per Month . I was faced with 2 Issues: The Cargo space on your current vehicle Peugeot Expert is more than 1200 Liters , 1st issue . 2nd Issue for someone who travels around 350 Miles a day , when would you have time to charge your vehicle and how significant would be the fuel savings on a vehicle with a 28 Miles Electric range ?
The navigation might something to do with the fact is a Chevy volt in drag ' Been American , it could be set up for a Zip code of 5 numbers , we gave 6 numbers and letters , sounds like an oversight !
The full postcode was on the screen? It was only showing the letters that are available in SE6 1, one of which was L and then I'm sure it would have shown F and a few other letters. What he also failed to mention was the performance and driveability. Did the heavy batteries make it lurch round bends? Was it boring or fun?
It's a series hybrid which means the engine is ONLY a generator (aka range extender). The wheels are powered by the electric motor only. I think it's the simplest, most reliable and most cost effective way to configure a hybrid system. The only other hybrid I know that's like this is the BMW i3
They were really expensive to manufacture, so £39.000 isn't a bad price for a car that is both E,V, and with extended range capability. Well engineered and proving very reliable, they will also have the flexibility in the very near future to have the battery range extended
That's level 1 charging, level 2 is 4-6 hours. GM wisely didn't introduce supercharging to the Volt. It's not a favourable - while still most welcome- option.
Supercharging kills batteries on ANY EV, including Tesla and Prius. 10 year average lifespan on a battery cell if you supercharge. 15 year average lifespan on a battery cell on normal charge
if the car fits your needs it's the right one for you. I just won't pay a lot for any car I bought the flu for £5K so I'm happy with the bat lease. sure I'm still saving money against petrol and get free breakdown cover and all the other benefits I could mention but that's no longer it for me. EV cars are just brilliant to drive and boy, would I love a tesla with self drive but my 34 mile drive to work wouldn't do a better job than my flu. l will buy a 3 year 30kw leaf in 2 years for similar money. I really love the lack interest in EV cars because I will always get a bargain in future so thank you all.
@@asensibleyoungman2978 How time flies! Well I did buy a 30kw Leaf Teckna and I love it! At the moment free 50kw charge points in the Bradford area, I can get free charge ups at Work and I have solar at home, or( 5ppkw at night, not charges up at home since I bought the car) Main dealer charges £99 per year for a service £145 every second year. When I'm done with this one the 40KW Leafs are coming down in price fast so that will probably be my last car in retirement. I really love all the people who like to pay so much tax on their fuel and leave me with loads of charge points empty God bless you all.
It runs for 35-55 miles on the charge then the engine comes on and off at need. It will recharge from some of the regenerative braking and automatically shut the engine off when there is enough to run it on battery again for a few miles. You can also charge is at some service stations if you go for food etc, but a fast charge takes 4 hours so if in for an hour you would only get about ten miles charge and the engine comes on again.
Rough figures, if I do 20,000 miles a year on short commutes of around 25 miles each way then petrol at 30mpg is going to cost me around £4000 in petrol. If I do the same journey in the Ampera, it will cost me about 1.50 a day, or £547 a year. If I charge the car at work, thats a little more savings. Of course, I'm not driving 365 days a year to work and back so there will be more expensive longer journeys. Plus, don't forget the 100,000 mile lifetime warranty and lower maintenance costs.
When battery changing stations becoming a common site on the roads, that's when electric cars will become a genuine alternative to the fossil fuelers. Also, when the economy of scales improves to the point where electric family cars become genuinely affordable to the average family, that's when the electric revolution will take off! With the way things are going at the moment, i see this movement taking place within the next 15 years.
It is for most people. Fast Charging will be available on the Spark EV but GM is reluctant to make it wide spread. With good reason. Tesla HAS to offer superchargers.
Actually, after the four figure post code comes on, it gives you the option of putting in the street name and number in. The sat nav is not as good as a plug in garmin, so unless you want leather seats the extra cost for the sat nav and HDD might not be worth the extra cost.
There's no switching between engine and electric motor because the engine isn't connected to the wheels directly. It just charges the batteries when they get low.
so this car cant re-charge batery on long driving ??? as example london scotland .... ??? can som one tell my this ?? so if i go to germany i well only run on petrol ???
you can charge on the way dude, sheesh. The pure electric range is 80km then the generator kicks in. I figure you do gez regenerative braking as well though
So if he's saving about £1400 p.a. & it costs around £20000 more than normal,it costs quite a lot more to run o/all. Does that make sense? I think it's an expensive toy & could never work on costs useing rough figures. If you need acurate figures you'll need to hang on for about 10years for real numbers.
When the batery is full, it uses two electric motors as propultion units. It's conbined power output is of 150cv. When the batery isn't enough and the conbustion engine kicks in as a generator the transmission will lock the secondary electric motor to the range extender to provide electric generation. So, yes. It looses power because the secondary electric motor is generating and not pushing. I've been able to get the total electric power of 150bhp and the conbustion engine power of 85bhp, but I didn't get the power output of the secondary electric motor, therefor I didn't get to know the power output diferencial.
really are good cars, 4 hours to fully charge, very good handling, level on every corner, instant power in electric mode. But are expensive to buy even with the first owner kick back from the gov, and am afraid we wont be getting the mark 2 version as they aint selling them in the EU as they were not big sellers, USA are to get them though, big shame as are generally good cars, better than the rest of the terrible VX range, including the horrendous Insignai
i and many friends used insignias as taxis, a truly shocking car, what To expect from a diesel siggy, clutch/flywheel failure, dpf issues, boot latch button fails, crank gear snaps, coolant loss from egr cooler housing, clutch pedal squeak, front badge to fal off, constant svs messages, abs sensors failure, contaminated fuel diesel mixes with the oil due to dpf, low oil pressure warnings, water in fuel errors, the list goes on and on, vx should be held to account many 100s if not 1000s have had these issues. DONT BUY AN INSIGNIA. In contrast the Ampera is far superior. But then at 36k brand new when first out you would expect a half decent car.
Mr Smith they are all the same all cdtis, they will all suffer at least a few of the issues I mention trust me, even the petrol have issues, thermostats, coolant bottles leak, more of the same from this poor brand.
I can get a 30kw nissan leaf for 10k, with a range of 120 miles, and a fast charging time of 20/30 mins. Why buy something that takes 8hrs to charge? And has the added expense of a petrol engine that needs fuel, and servicing, you never added in engine servicing, which puts the running costs very high in comparison to nissan leaf
Because charging an electric vehicle is limiting. Charging points are few and far between compared to petrol pumps. Your journey has to be planned around charging up. That seriously impedes on your freedom as a car driver. You are effectively at the mercy of charging point locations. What if you arrive at an electric charging point and they are in use? You could also have other electric cars waiting. You could be there hours just waiting to hook up. If you forget to charge up overnight you're screwed. I love the idea of all electric cars but at the moment the negatives outweigh the positives.
Best to mention the power steering lock on these, it's a known fault, it will lock up the steering and car will not come out of sleep mode, best cure pull the fuse, reinsert and hey presto all is good
