[cyril]

I currently own a Prius and have done for nearly 3 years it has been just ok, I commute 50+ miles to and from work each day predominatly motorway and I,m dissapointed with the mpg I get from it 54 is my average which is less than I was getting from my old Vectra diesel, conicidentally I don,t have a heavy right foot.
I admit the Prius is a more comfortable vehicle in all respects but saving money on fuel was my main criteria when I got it.
I am due to get a new car in May and the Ampera is one of the vehicles I am drawn to, I have been on the website and am currently waiting on a 3 day trial, now a 3 day trial is all well and good but the mpg,s being quoted from the official stastics look excellent as is with ALL manufactureres however I wish they would have a "REAL LIFE" mpg, does anyone on the site have any comments about their Amperas mpg and experiences.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Hi.

The mpg you get from an Ampera can be viewed in two ways. It depends which way you want to view it and for what purpose.

With a normal car, as it is also with the Prius, there is only one way to measure mpg... you look at the amount of petrol you have put in and look at the distance you have driven... from that you get mpg.

1) With the Ampera it isn't that simple. It has a range of 40-50 miles on electricity only so if you never drive further than 40 miles between charges you would use no petrol at all (or may be very little). Your "mpg" figures could then be in the hundreds of miles per gallon used.

2) The other way to look at it is to consider what the mpg is when running on petrol only. That would only occur if you never charged at all and if you never charged why have an Ampera? I am getting about 50mpg when running on petrol only. A bit less at motorway speeds (70mph)

So, the overall mpg you get will depend on how much you drive the car using electricity vs using petrol. If you have a 50+ each way trip to work then you would get most of the way there on electricity (charged up overnight the night before) just using a bit of petrol at the end of your journey. The return would then all be on petrol unless you can plug in at work.

So, round trip is 100 miles... 40 miles on electricity. 60 miles on petrol.

You would use about 1.2 gallons of petrol per day and about 13kWh of electricity for the 100 miles. Your overall mpg will be about 83mpg for that trip each day and at say, 15p/kWh it would also cost you about £2 in electricity.

If you could charge at work then you would do 80 miles on electricity and 20 miles on petrol... you would then get about 250 mpg!

These figures are based on my real world experience of what I am actually getting from my Ampera over the past 5000 miles. My overall is currently 105mpg but I have done a few long trips using a lot of petrol.

I hope this helps.

 

[cyril]

Thank you for the reply its appreciated, I can charge the vehicle at work so your real life figures are of great help to me.
As winter approaches and the dark mornings and nights are rapidly starting to "set in" does this effect the range the car will do because of the extra power needed for lights etc oh and how does the heater work if its on battery mode, I assume just like a conventional convector heater, on the Prius it uses the petrol engine to warm the car.
I live in Northumberland and travel to Darlington 6 days a week on my way to work the A1 is quiet I leave home at 5.15 am most mornings but on the way home it can be a nightmare particularily the western bypass where it can take an hour to crawl a few miles because the road is not adequate for the amount of vehicles its SUPPOSED to cater for, how do you find your Ampera coping in heavy traffic again I assume it will have an effect on its range.The Prius will go about a mile in battery mode before it charges its self up again but it wont go over 30mph and if you press the accelerator a tad hard the petrol engine switches itself on, I am dissapointed with the Prius with regards to the actual mpg,s I,m getting from it the garage who services my car has a leader board of the mpg,s customers are getting from their vehicles some are in to the 65+mpg I said to the service receptionist/salesman that I will defy ANYONE to get that from my vehicle because of the type of roads I use predominatly motorway he agreed that it was a BIG ask and said the leader board was headed by those people who never get their cars on the motorway and stick to the town.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

Thank you for the reply its appreciated, I can charge the vehicle at work so your real life figures are of great help to me.

Excellent. You will use some petrol but hardly any really I would expect.

As winter approaches and the dark mornings and nights are rapidly starting to "set in" does this effect the range the car will do because of the extra power needed for lights etc oh and how does the heater work if its on battery mode, I assume just like a conventional convector heater, on the Prius it uses the petrol engine to warm the car.

Lights and radio won't affect range at all but the heater - a/c will. I can't say by how much for certain but based on what my Nissan Leaf does it could reduce electric range by about as much as 10%. Perhaps others on the forum have a better idea of this.

I live in Northumberland and travel to Darlington 6 days a week on my way to work the A1 is quiet I leave home at 5.15 am most mornings but on the way home it can be a nightmare particularily the western bypass where it can take an hour to crawl a few miles because the road is not adequate for the amount of vehicles its SUPPOSED to cater for, how do you find your Ampera coping in heavy traffic again I assume it will have an effect on its range.The Prius will go about a mile in battery mode before it charges its self up again but it wont go over 30mph and if you press the accelerator a tad hard the petrol engine switches itself on, I am dissapointed with the Prius with regards to the actual mpg,s I,m getting from it the garage who services my car has a leader board of the mpg,s customers are getting from their vehicles some are in to the 65+mpg I said to the service receptionist/salesman that I will defy ANYONE to get that from my vehicle because of the type of roads I use predominatly motorway he agreed that it was a BIG ask and said the leader board was headed by those people who never get their cars on the motorway and stick to the town.

The Ampera is an electric car and as such its range generally decreases with more speed. That of course is true of all cars but it is even more so with EVs. The thing about at EV is that when stationary it uses no fuel at all and even at low speed it is normally running on battery just running the generator to top up when needed. Again, I haven't any hard figures for you but I would expect the Ampera to return superb MPG figures in slow traffic. The best I have got on petrol only is 65mpg at a steady-ish 45mph and if slower than that I would expect it to be even better. Again, can anyone else comment?

 

[cyril]

Thank you VERY much for taking the time and trouble to reply, I am so very pleased that I found this site, your help and answers are swaying me in the direction of the Ampera all I need now is the 3 day trial.
I find it strange that G.M/Vauxhall are not shouting from the roof tops the cars obvious good points in the "green age" we appear to be in and the advantages the Ampera has over its rivals I,m sure there is a reason unbeknown to me.
One more question how frequent does it need servicing and how expensive is it the Prius started off at £140 ish the service before last was over £300 I was aghast at that and got intouch with my leasing company who let me get the car serviced at a garage who is not a main dealer but are more than competent to do the job my last service was £80 and it was a 70000 mile service.

 

[Nigel Hunt]

My old Prius and my newer Auris hybrid were never brilliant on motorway MPG. Far better in town with stop start driving. Very important to compare like with like though. I'm guessing that your old Vectra diesel wasn't automatic like the Prius?

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I don't know how much servicing will be yet but I imagine it won't be particularly cheap. The good thing is that servicing is not as often as most normal cars.

I would be amazed if you could find a non-Vauxhall garage who is suitable qualified to work on EVs. They require very special training in high-voltage systems if the mechanic wants to stay alive! :shock:

 

[Duncan]

I don't know how much servicing will be yet but I imagine it won't be particularly cheap. The good thing is that servicing is not as often as most normal cars.

I would be amazed if you could find a non-Vauxhall garage who is suitable qualified to work on EVs. They require very special training in high-voltage systems if the mechanic wants to stay alive! :shock:

Unless of course it's a Chevrolet garage! :^)

FWIW, Chevrolet offer a fixed price servicing package for 3 years at £349. That's exactly the same as they charge for most of their other cars (except the Captiva which is more). I don't know if it's a good deal or not but £115 for an annual service seemed reasonable so I paid the money.

 

[Parax]

In my experience the worst range I have ever had was from motorway driving (going to fast)... having done a fair amount of motorway driving recently, and I'd estimate the following, based on average cruise speed with minimal slowing & speed-up, and with minimal gradient change:

Speed  = EV Range&Gas Economy	50 mile trip	100 mile trip
50mph = 48 miles & 64mpg		1600mpg		123mpg
55mph = 46 miles & 60mpg		750mpg 		111mpg
60mph = 43 miles & 56mpg		400mpg 		98mpg
65mph = 40 miles & 52mpg		260mpg 		86mpg
70mph = 37 miles & 49mpg		188mpg 		77mpg
80mph = 30 miles & 41mpg		102mpg 		58mpg
90mph = 21 miles & 30mpg		51mpg  		38mpg

As you can see if you get carried along by the traffic speed it can hurt your economy a lot.
Also the longer the Journey the less %age is EV mileage so the worse the mpg gets.

As for heavy traffic, Stopping and starting will affect the range but a constant 30mph gives very good rates so its a bit six of one half a dozen of the other... you wont max your range but its not disastrous either.

Don't expect any miracles!!

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I would say my range is similar to that table. I'd consider that a good basic guide as to what to expect.

 

[cyril]

In my experience the worst range I have ever had was from motorway driving (going to fast)... having done a fair amount of motorway driving recently, and I'd estimate the following, based on average cruise speed with minimal slowing & speed-up, and with minimal gradient change:

Speed  = EV Range&Gas Economy	50 mile trip	100 mile trip
50mph = 48 miles & 64mpg		1600mpg		123mpg
55mph = 46 miles & 60mpg		750mpg 		111mpg
60mph = 43 miles & 56mpg		400mpg 		98mpg
65mph = 40 miles & 52mpg		260mpg 		86mpg
70mph = 37 miles & 49mpg		188mpg 		77mpg
80mph = 30 miles & 41mpg		102mpg 		58mpg
90mph = 21 miles & 30mpg		51mpg  		38mpg

As you can see if you get carried along by the traffic speed it can hurt your economy a lot.
Also the longer the Journey the less %age is EV mileage so the worse the mpg gets.

As for heavy traffic, Stopping and starting will affect the range but a constant 30mph gives very good rates so its a bit six of one half a dozen of the other... you wont max your range but its not disastrous either.

Don't expect any miracles!![/quote

Thank you this is of a great help to me

 

[cyril]

My old Prius and my newer Auris hybrid were never brilliant on motorway MPG. Far better in town with stop start driving. Very important to compare like with like though. I'm guessing that your old Vectra diesel wasn't automatic like the Prius?

Correct it was a manual

 

[cyril]

Already had Bristol Street motors on the phone and had an e.mail, the guy at Bristol Street was as expected very friendly I was asking him questions and his advice was "Join the Ampera Owners Club" as people on there are more knowledgeable with regards to "real life" ownership of an Ampera.
Excellent advice I told him and as I had already done so and he was right 100% :0)