Ampera – A Tempting Option

Opel's e-car doesn't give us range anxiety and still offers the feel of an electric car

Is it really an electric vehicle? Opel’s parent company General Motors stresses that the Ampera and the technically Identical Chevrolet Volt belong to the same category-although the petrol engine. Intended to be a range extender, helps in propulsion as well. Technically speaking, the Ampera is thus a power-split hybrid, just like the Toyota Prius.

Technically speaking, the Ampera is thus a power-split hybrid, just like the Toyota Prius.

There is some flexibility because of this. You can use the Ampera as a real electrical vehicle and cover a distance of almost 100 kilometers, which should be more than enough to get most people to their offices and back home — that too at speeds of up to 161 km/h. With one battery charge, you can drive a maximum of 80 kilometers, so you will need to charge the battery between each long trip. The charging component appears to be very finicky here; charging requires six amperes of stable current, and will simply cut off if the supply is inadequate. The voltage at the power outlet of an underground car park we tried proved unstable enough, so as a crude workaround we pulled a cable upstairs through a narrow window. This sort of thing is of course impractical for everyday usage and impossible in bad weather. Still, it worked, and facilities will improve with time.

Electric driving is an experience: it was clear to us right from the beginning that the car delivers its full torque of 370 Nm off the cuff and does not make any perceptible sound in the process. The car is able to start and brake so quickly that it tempted us into some rather non-traditional driving habits! We wound up driving too fast very often in the Ampera simply because our ears deceived us into thinking we were not moving fast enough.

Ampera side

If you're thinking of a family picnic over the weekend, the Ampera will need to use its hybrid engines. Of our planned 360km route, the electric engine managed just 60 at a highway speed of 120kmph. The combustion engine had to pitch in for the remaining distance. If you are not looking at the controls, you won't even notice the transition from one operating mode to another: there are no jerks, and at an average speed, the engine noise is drowned out by the road and wind noise. The fuel-based range extender also fires up in case the car encounters gradients or accelerations and is audible enough, but not loud. The engine is really distracting only in city traffic. Opel has therefore designed something called the "Stop" mode. If this mode is activated on a highway or country road, provided there is enough capacity in the battery, the petrol engine takes over and electrical energy is saved up for city travel.

The car's other features are however not as well thought- out and optimized as the mechanics. The 7-inch info-navy entertainment display has no less than 29 touch buttons, seven mechanical buttons and two turn-and-press knobs. There is another controller to the left of the steering wheel, and the display itself is a touchscreen. We have no idea how much time it could take for someone to get comfortable with this kind of dashboard. After a week, we still couldn't figure out how to set the air conditioner so that it didn't gobble up the battery's power.

There is another controller to the left of the steering wheel, and the display itself is a touchscreen.

Waiting For Higher Fuel Prices

If you drive 160,000 kilometers—which is the warranty limit for the batteries—only on electric power, the Ampera consumes $6,686 worth of electricity as opposed to a diesel car which at 20 kmpi would rack up $14,588 worth of fuel expenses. The savings doesn't offset the premium of approximately $24,313 you'd pay for this car as opposed to a comparable Opel Astra Diesel.

Ampera back

The result shatters our optimism. Despite this, we cannot stop ourselves from keeping a watch out for reasonable discounts for the Chevrolet Volt. The technical twin of the Ampera is available for $48,625 with all the extra features at some showrooms, and if the fuel prices go up, the car will pay itself off sooner than the calculation above.