I have no doubt whatsoever the Ampera could slip unobtrusively into the lives of 50% of Insignia drivers, so long as they remembered to plug it in to charge every evening, as routinely as you do your smartphone. The upshot is you drive the Ampera like a normal car, with normal turbodiesel performance, and zero4 range anxiety. Nail the throttle, and the petrol motor clutches onto the wheels via a CVT ‘gearbox’. Thanks, Obama.Īt motorway speeds, the e-motors work together for maximum efficiency, as long as cell-power allows. All three power sources are connected to the Ampera’s front wheels via a furiously complicated system of planetary clutches, magic, and sheer bloody-mindedness. Plus, there’s an extra 71bhp electric motor crammed under the bonnet. After a realistic range of 25-50 miles of silent torquey punch, the Ampera’s 1.4-litre, naturally aspirated four-pot petrol politely rouses, toiling as a battery power generator. Not that you’ll ever run them completely down – the lithium-ion cells use only 65% of their capacity to maximise operational life. Its front wheels are spun by a 148bhp electric motor, juiced by batteries that take 13 hours to charge. Ironically, beneath its slippery but painfully frumpy suit, the Ampera has the more innovative powertrain. In the entire time I was driving the Vauxhall on this photoshoot, it only tore eyes away from the cartoonish i3 when uneasy onlookers wondered why a dreary sales rep was tailgating it. Approach its surprisingly bulbous, chic form with the bespoke, pancake-flat key in hand, and the i3 looks like it could be a dastardly villain from Disney’s Cars franchise. Ready to make fuel-sipping nerdiness cool, like Harry Potter sending demand for trendy teenage specs into overdrive.Īnd the BMW i3 is cool. Chevy parent General Motors has poured (US government) money into offering a viable range-extended vehicle, and in strolls BMW, late, overdressed, unashamed. It’s the British-badged cousin of the Chevrolet Volt, a tangible result of 2009’s US auto industry bailouts. The Ampera, a Focus-sized four-seater with a fabulously complex powertrain, has been on sale since 2011. BMW has invested £2bn in its electric iCar programme, and if the £33,830 i3 Range Extender we’re driving finds enough showroom traction to take electric cars mainstream, Vauxhall will have a right to feel hard done by. #2014 chevy volt range extender crackIn effect, that’s exactly what BMW is having a crack at with its new i3. I know this, because I shall write the history’. Churchill once regaled Parliament with the line: ‘History will show that my right honourable friend was wrong.
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