[proddick]

Al

I have had my Ampera a few weeks, its a second car so not using it much until I can put a cherished number on it so waiting for the V5 to come back, but absolutely love it. Although not answering your question exactly, let me give you my experience with respect to Ampera economy. I went from Solihull less than half charged showing only 15 miles electric range to Coventry and back and combined mpg showed as 101 for the whole journey. In short I'm amazed, but its not all about the economy. Its a really nice experience. As I mentioned on another post, a ICE car raced past, and seemed really outdated. I've got a little sports car that gives me 30mpg if that, but realistically I'm starting to think the Ampera is all I need.

Did you realise you replied to a post from 2014

Anyway - Welcome to the "Ampera Future from the Past" and you will find lots of info here. Hopefully you will make the "50 EV mile" club soon

 

[Grasshopper]

Wow, no I hadn't. Thank you. Playing catchup here...

Thanks for the welcome, see you've been very active here.

My commute for work is 42 miles round trip. Be really happy if I can do it on electric.

 

[Derekosb]

Wow, no I hadn't. Thank you. Playing catchup here...

Thanks for the welcome, see you've been very active here.

My commute for work is 42 miles round trip. Be really happy if I can do it on electric.

Welcome to the forum. 42 Miles is doable in the better weather but you will struggle to be pure electric in the wet and winter months. You should be able to manage at least 80% electric so should still get low running costs combined with the pleasure of the relaxed drive.

Hope you continue to enjoy the car. D

 

[Lee Dalton]

42 is possible all year round if you are hardy enough to go without heating, and happy to stay below 60mph all the way.
But it's easier to just use a few miles of petrol each winters day, use the heating, and enjoy it
*I do 40 miles each way on my commute, 36 miles of it is dual carriageway !

 

[Grasshopper]

Derek/Lee, cheers for the info. I'll test out in the next few weeks just to see what I can achieve as I am quite intrigued by the posts. Generally though, I won't be hanging about on the big roads and motorway as I get stuck in traffic 20 minutes each way. Plus I won't hold back on the AC, heated seats or other luxuries whenever I need them. It's way cheaper than I'm used to. Thanks again

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

 

[Spiny]

AC and heated seats use little power, its the heating along with keeping the batteries happy that shortens the range in winter. Summer and warm batteries gives the greatest range. Slow traffic is good for range, you don't burn fuel to stay still and travelling at 10-20 mph in a queue means no losses due to air resistance. Quite unlike an ICE.

 

[Grasshopper]

AC and heated seats use little power, its the heating along with keeping the batteries happy that shortens the range in winter. Summer and warm batteries gives the greatest range. Slow traffic is good for range, you don't burn fuel to stay still and travelling at 10-20 mph in a queue means no losses due to air resistance. Quite unlike an ICE.

Yes, correct, compared to 0% efficiency in an idling engine. Good point re drag though. Thermal considerations for the battery come at a cost, unfortunately.

 

[Freebird]

I'm starting to think the Ampera is all I need.

I like that. BTW I have been on here a year and I still find posts from years ago that are informative and interesting. There is a great deal of information on here.

 

[Ed Straker's Car]

@Grasshopper welcome to the new/old Ampera- club

Pretty much everything you need or didn't know you needed to know about the Volt/Ampera on here..

owned mine 14 months - use as a commuter car 40 miles a day + 250 miles round trips 3-4 times a month

I've not used Petrol on the commute except for the worst winter days , even then getting 35 off the battery.

careful with the sport mode button as that eat into the range !

 

[Grasshopper]

Absolutely!! Thanks for sharing your journey stats. I see similar potential.
Contrary to this, in my other car, I had a terrible & expensive journey back from Bromsgrove this evening.
Clutch foot hurting. Relaxed for half hour when I got in.
Then needed to get to Touchwood and back at around 6pm. Took the Ampera, tranquil 6.8 mile journey and despite rush hour traffic, the 6.8miles used 1.4KWh. Range before showed 39miles fully charged, and got home on 37 or 36 (can't quite remember). Got back totally chilled.
With pretty decent petrol economy, when mass move to electric and the government decide to really hike the electricity prices, we can revert to petrol

 

[Marli]

In winter it's rain. It hits battery range on every front.

Drag.
Wicks heat from the cabin.(making the AC work hard)
Wicks heat from the battery(making the battery heater work hard)
Causes bad grip causing loss of power both in acceleration and breaking.
Wicks heat and therefore pressure from the tyres decreasing efficiency.
Decreases visibility decrease your oetunity to slow break across junctions.

I've seen my range decimated on a warmer wetter day.

 

[Richard Gledhill]

It's mainly the drag from accelerating all those rain drops from 0-60 in a few milliseconds that does it - it can easily knock 25% off your range.

And welcome @Grasshopper! I see you're quite local to me (Stoneleigh, just SE of Coventry). Happy to meet up sometime and evangelise... I've now had mine just over 3 years, no problems, 31000 miles, average 133mpg since new. By far the most relaxing car to drive in all conditions, and ludicrously cheap (particularly compared to the Jag XKR I had before... £1000/year in tyres, anyone!?).

What colour's yours? Just in case I spot you around....

 

[Grasshopper]

It's mainly the drag from accelerating all those rain drops from 0-60 in a few milliseconds that does it - it can easily knock 25% off your range.

And welcome @Grasshopper! I see you're quite local to me (Stoneleigh, just SE of Coventry). Happy to meet up sometime and evangelise... I've now had mine just over 3 years, no problems, 31000 miles, average 133mpg since new. By far the most relaxing car to drive in all conditions, and ludicrously cheap (particularly compared to the Jag XKR I had before... £1000/year in tyres, anyone!?).

What colour's yours? Just in case I spot you around....

Thanks!! Hi Richard. Mine is lithium white. Yes, be good to meet up at some point, cheers, and I've lots to learn about the Ampera so would love to see some more in the flesh. Could possibly do one Saturday, or even better a Sunday morning/afternoon. Really enjoy being on this forum plus there is round the clock expertise. I wonder if there are group meets? Good to hear yours has served you well, what a great endorsement.
£1000 is a lot of rubber, you've gone one extreme to the other. I'm not feeling hard done by when I'm in the Ampera, the opposite if anything plus is the best of both worlds. Making me wonder how much better a Tesla can actually be.

 

[Richard Gledhill]

Sounds good! Yes, this forum has been an unbelievable help and reassurance during my 3 years of ownership, especially when I got the "Check Engine" light on for the first time and it was simply because the charging flap was sticking. That saved a lot of trips to (not so close) dealers and stress, I can tell you. I love it as much today as the day I bought it
Happy to meet up! We're in the process of (hopefully) moving house at the moment so things are a little busy but the good lady wife works one weekend a month, so maybe next time that happens we can have a Coventry/Warwickshire mini-meet. We might even get @donald over in whatever he's driving by that point There's a nice pub near us with a huge car park and cheep'n'cheerful food, which is used regularly by car clubs, so that would be an obvious one. How does that sound?

 

[Grasshopper]

Sounds good! Yes, this forum has been an unbelievable help and reassurance during my 3 years of ownership, especially when I got the "Check Engine" light on for the first time and it was simply because the charging flap was sticking. That saved a lot of trips to (not so close) dealers and stress, I can tell you. I love it as much today as the day I bought it
Happy to meet up! We're in the process of (hopefully) moving house at the moment so things are a little busy but the good lady wife works one weekend a month, so maybe next time that happens we can have a Coventry/Warwickshire mini-meet. We might even get @donald over in whatever he's driving by that point There's a nice pub near us with a huge car park and cheep'n'cheerful food, which is used regularly by car clubs, so that would be an obvious one. How does that sound?

Sounds fantastic. I am in. My availability at the moment free all Sat & Sun up until August, except Saturday 1 July. Away in August. Cheers. Anyone else interested?

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk