Error parsing XSLT file: \xslt\FacebookOpenGraph.xslt Our Fleet Test Drive: Vauxhall Ampera - 2nd Report
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Our Fleet Test Drive: Vauxhall Ampera - 2nd Report

Date: 08 January 2014   |   Author:

We weren't there long enough to completely charge it, but the Ampera gets you into an 'every little helps' mentality
Mileage: 7187
P11D price: £38,940
Our average consumption: 125.5mpg
Official combined consumption: 235.4mpg
Forecast CPM: 64.6p

It felt a bit like the good old days of my teenage years, sponging off my parents the first time I dropped in to visit them with the Ampera. 

As soon as I got there I had to ask my dad if he could move his car off the driveway and onto the road so I could park the Vauxhall near enough to the garage's plug socket to boost the battery for the journey home.

We weren't there long enough to completely charge it, but the Ampera gets you into an 'every little helps' sort of mentality, where it feels like such a waste to be driving on petrol power. And that's without the painful experience of watching any of the mpg figures plunge from their lofty position.

It's all part of the game, but the Ampera gives you a lifetime economy figure plus mpg since the last full charge, and there's the trip computer that I reset after each of the pleasingly rare fill-ups with fuel.

The economy since the last full charge is the most upsetting one because once the charge is used up and you come off the electric, it drops quickly from 250-plus mpg, and even when it's still reading over 100mpg, such is the amount the Ampera resets your impression of what is impressive fuel economy that you feel a bit disappointed. 


Verdict


  • Pioneering tech sets new mpg ground
  • Plugging in when it's raining

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