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Opel Ampera (Chevy Volt for EU) - prices and specs

Discussion in 'Chevrolet Volt' started by pakitt, Sep 23, 2011.

  1. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    The Opel Ampera is now available in Germany/EU and Opel website is showing all relevant information.
    In particular:
    - base price 42.900€ - max price €48.347 (with *everything* on it) - these prices exclude delivery costs (about 500€) and registration costs (another 100€)
    - overall weight: 1732kg
    - electric motor 150HP (111kW); 370Nm
    - 54kW generator
    - 1.4L combustion engine 86HP/63kW - no torque value provided
    - 35L tank
    - 16kWh Li-Ion Batteries
    - 40-80km battery range; >500km with range extension
    - 161km/h max speed
    - 0-100km/h in 9s
    - fuel consumption combined, according to CE norm: 1.2L/100km
    - CO2 emissions 27g/km

    This car will pay 28€ tax/year in Germany according to current regulation. The Prius in comparison pays 36€/year.

    The values of fuel consumption are obviously not the reality since, 35L at 1.2L/100km, yield 2916km and not ">500km"...so the EU/CE tests are crap, to say the least, for this type of vehicle. If I can get 80+500=580km with a full charge and the range extender, by putting in 35L of fuel (and xx kWh of electricity), it means I can do 6L/100km, and not 1.2L/100km...
    So how much exactly I can get with a full tank of gas and a full charged battery is a mystery.

    With a Prius instead I know that I put 45L, I get (officially) 4L/100km on combined EU cycle test and I can actually drive 1125km with them.
    I typically get 800km with about 37L or true 4.6L/100km...and that's fact, not an estimation.

    The complete price list and catalogue, in German only..., here and here respectively.

    Considering the price, you will likely have to drive zillions of kilometres before you offset the savings due to the not consumed fuel and the electricity costs. In Germany on average the kWh costs around 0,20€.

    PS: waiting for the prices and specs of the Prius Plug-in in EU, starting in 2012. Then the comparisons will be even more interesting...
     
  2. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    The European Prius PHEV price and specs have just been released today. I have posted a thread indicating the UK price - which is massive :( It'll never be viable financially as all the tax benefits and other incentives such as free access to the London Congestion Charge zone (instead of £8 a day) already apply to the gen3 Prius.

    There isn't any good reason to buy the Prius PHEV in the UK. The existing Prius gets great economy and the tax benefits shown above, the Leaf costs the same as the Prius PHEV but you have no fuel costs and have free access to the LGC zone too. The Renault Fluence costs much less but you lease the HV batteries. This lower cost could allow you to buy the Fluence, lease the batteries and still have £8,000 to buy/rent a petrol car for the longer runs.
     
  3. stephent

    stephent Junior Member

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    Shouldn't be much of a mystery. Opel Ampera is basically a Volt with slightly different front fascia & lighting, everything else is identical so you should get identical results as Volt drivers in U.S. do. Thus on a full tank + charge you should be able to get around 650km, depending on how fast you drive. But simply dividing this by the size of the tank is not at all a realistic way of computing fuel economy, because a typical Ampera driver is not going to do one full charge per tank, you might do 25 charges every tank, or 50, or even 100.

    To compute fuel economy you have to know your "electric utililization factor", how many miles are expected to be electric vs. gas. In the U.S., owners are doing about 66% electric so far. But this highly variable from driver to driver, some are doing 98%+ electric while others doing much less. In Europe, with typically shorter distances, I would expect greater electric utilization.

    OK, so while in electric mode, taking U.S. EPA figures of 36 kw-hr per 100 miles = 22.37 kw-hr per 100 km, it would cost you around €4.47 every 100km. Real life driver can easily exceed this, I am using 31.5 kw-hr per 100 miles which would be €3.91 per 100km.

    In contrast, in your Prius getting 4.6 L/100km, this would cost what, maybe €7.36? In gas mode, the Volt is worse than the Prius, probably 5.9 L/100 km.

    In order to gauge the overall fuel cost difference, you must estimate how much of your driving would be outside the Ampera's ~64 km electric range.
     
  4. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    stephent - I understand what you are saying; my post was not however meant to criticise the Volt/Ampera in terms of performance.
    What I meant with my comments, is that you buy a 40k€+ car, and the manufacturer cannot really tell you what is the range in the best of cases - you have no idea really of how often, more or less, you have to tank if you do a 1000km trip across country.
    Simply saying >500km is no good to me and should not be to any customer.
    That said, surely one will buy this car, or another PHEV like the Prius with in mind mostly driving within the EV range, otherwise it would not make sense.
    To this respect, it will be interesting, official data at hand, what is more worth in terms of overall costs, to own a Prius Plug-in or a Volt/Ampera in Europe.
    Moreover my comments are also directed at the EU cycle tests which for these cars they completely loose any meaning.
    From the specs, I can only derive that the Ampera will drive about 650km on a tank and the Prius plug-in or the normal Prius will manage 850km+.
    The EU cycle tests, moreover, for these can also not be used anymore to make comparisons to other conventional, hybrid or plug-in vehicles, since they are meant to check the fuel consumption on a conventional car, and not it's true efficiency (for example, how much electricity/energy does plug-in x need for Z km, compared to plug-in y? I don't think the EU cycle tests really tell you this, in case of plug-ins).
     
  5. stephent

    stephent Junior Member

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    So basically you are criticizing Opel's website for lack of specificity? Fair enough. The American Volt website, however, does provide the data you need, under feature/specs/fuel:
    cruising range, city (gas): 325.5 mi (524 km)
    cruising range, highway (gas): 372 mi (599 km)
    total range: 407 mi (654 km).
    So for 1000+ km trip, in reality since you usually don't go fully empty you probably stop for refuel at 600 km, and every 550 km or so thereafter.
    Maybe a little more, since it's safer to go fully empty in these cars, because if you do run totally out of gas, it will switch back to battery for another 5km before completely stopping you.

    Yes, the normal tests lose meaning. Thus GM's "230 MPG" fiasco. That's why EPA in U.S. came up with new tests and new label. Before those are in place, to calculate cost of fuel, you simply have to do the calculations yourself based on available data. And with these new cars using mixed fuel sources, fuel consumption will vary with the individual more than ever before, since you have to account for your personal habits, how much of each fuel you would use.