Bought one second hand. My first EV(rev) and love it so far. It's always a game to me to get as much range out of the battery as possible. :) Before i drove a 280hp Nissan 350z. But i wanted something cheaper to operate, more space and have high comfort. Second hand Opel Ampera was that.

@@HermanWillems howz yours treating u 😀

+jlghardy Sadly, Opel/Vauxhall made virtually no attempt whatsoever to market the thing and restricted the sale of the vehicle to a dozen showrooms or so in the UK. With all the goodwill in the world, my conclusion cannot be anything but this: Opel/Vauxhall wanted it to fail.

Good point Tim - I think however it may partly be that THE DEALERS wanted it to fail. Tesla do not have dealers and there is a reason: a dealer network based on profit from maintenance is not viable financially for EVs

jlghardy​ a year or so back, I was at the Vauxhall dealership in Lancaster and the boss there really wanted to sell them. He even had one parked up prominently on display on the forecourt,... But he wasn't allowed to. He had to send interested people to Manchester, where there was an accredited Ampera showroom. That shows the importance that Opel placed on the car. None. I'm not surprised, though very disappointed, that GM don't want to send v2s over here; Opel clearly couldn't give two hoots about them.

opel put too much effort into their diesal engines.... now they're screwed, now that the EU are trying to ban diesals in urban areas within europe (the UK have put plans in motion to push for a ban of diesals in 30 major city/towns by 2020-whether it gets through parliament though, is another matter). problem with the ampera was they marketed it, badly, with little effort- to the company car crowd, but you ask a company car driver- vauxhall or BMW, what do you think they'll choose?? a 4 seater hatchback car, in my opinion, was the completely wrong platform to put the drivtrain into... just imagine how popular it would have been if the put it into a zafira? all those parents doing short runs to drop their kids off at school.... They could have at least put 3 seats across the back.... the only reason i have'nt gone with an ampera, is i have 3 kids, aswell as the wife.... i could strap a kid to the roof i suppose- but just imagine how that'd affect the aerodynamics....

mitsubushi has shown what you can do , with the outlander phev, which although its not strictly an extended range vehicle, its pretty close... they are selling very well indeed... i guess vauxhall/opel would rather lose custom than bother...oh, and as a side note, the UK are apparently not getting the Bolt either, the 200 mile range electric car......

Reading this comment in 2019 is funny. How far have we come.

+manoman0 I agree.... If you do no have a "typical" drive and you like the idea of having a bit of freedom to go where you want when you want, without time constraints and still get there most of the way on electric.. this is the car!

Chris Bates I don't want a "typical" car anymore. It's like time travel. Backwards.

Just bought mine second hand. 69k kilometers, 15k euro. I can go to my work & back with a full battery. PERFECT. Bought a second hand cheap charger to mount to my house. Great car also. It's not super fast speedwise, but acceleration is great for rapid responses in traffic if needed. But comfort is great! The silence makes you enjoy your music alot better aswell, with the great audio inside. Love it.

I have a 2012 Ampera, my engine will start running below -4°C. Later models have an option to set the temperature to +2°C or -10°C (I know that some people place a resistor somewhere to fool the Volt, so the engine won't run when it's cold....)

+ Jur4x, We have a plug-in Prius that also starts the engine in very cold conditions (IE, around freezing). A water cooled engine will have a radiator, and that risks iceing when you add in the wind chill of driving. Better to start it up and warm up to prevent damage. Frustrating as hell, but better to use some petrol, than pay for the damage.

Electric heating. Supposed to take heat from the battery pack. Also has electric heated front seats. The car actually heats up quite quickly but obviously affects the range.

+nosuch thingasshould Great Idea, if they could make enough room for the engine and the tank in a compact container.

I think the engine could be really small, like a mower motor or chainsaw. Largish scooter at most. You just keep it running, in optimum gear, steady, charging the battery. as long as it has an output slightly greater then the energy consumption in regular cruise, it might make up for the greater consumption when accelerating or going uphill (Depending on your driving. Got to give the thing a chance). Between that, the re-gen. and running it during stops, a long trip is suddenly less daunting. And you don't have to carry a heavy engine when you don't need it.

electrictroy2010 I'd say they don't know about the existence of this car. Great marketing!

It just cost more to make a right-hand drive model.

@@SnazzBot They also not sell it in the Netherlands anymore. Mostly because of that there are alot of good EV options now. For example the Tesla Model 3 is sold like crazy here. And it cost less than the previous GM Volt. (opel ampera) Anyway, i bought second hand Ampera. There are some quirks i hate about the car though. The buttons are a clusterfuck(who the hell designed that), and with cold weather the front window gets alot of condensation which is annoying. But other than that. No complaints

2 different cars. The 80 mile range was about the leaf and the 44 KM was about the Ampera

It’s an interesting point because I found out that my Ampera was built in Detroit at the Hammtrack (sp?)

+Cristian Spiridon Depends on the speed you drive. I typically get 50 mpg or so but I tend to cruise at 62mph. There is a hidden benefit here. You only use the engine on long trips so it spends most of its operating life warmed up. So you don't have the mpg-killing two mile run to the shops with a cold engine

+TheManInDboX I'm considering buying one of these (used - I can't afford a new one). What range do you get on electric only?

Thank you everyone

+Cristian Spiridon the petrol engine does not run continuously. the cool thing is.. the battery is never really depleted so the generator only kicks in when needed or when the driver tells it to, via the different modes. The best test that I saw was that if you put the car in "mountain mode" with the battery @ zero juice showing... it will regenerate 40 miles of electric with one gallon of gas. so.. I guess 40 miles per gallon, but when you are driving, it is all up to your conditions and how your drive of course

+Chris Bates I know that the engine is only generating power but at the end of the day is consuming petrol :)) Thank you for your answer

I bought one in January 2015 model I love it. Quite sporty setup low down exact steering very pokey. 8 year electric drivetrain guarantee

I bought mine 2nd hand from a Vauxhall dealer just under 2yrs ago. FSH (important cus Vauxhall won’t honour the 8yr battery warranty without one), 14 plate Positive version, 33,000 miles, £12,500. Only issue I’ve had is the dreaded steering lock failed and I had to get it replaced but apart from that, 2 yrs later, now on 53,000 miles and this year I have done 6100 miles and used 1.0 gallons of fuel. Over 6,000 miles on electric. I have a charger at home and my work has a few free chargers as well so it is really cheap to run. I absolutely love it. The only car I would ever replace it with, is a Tesla but I told the missus that if I do ever get one then she is getting rid of her Renault and having the Ampera! Lol

Yes.

Mine has had the dreaded steering lock replaced but yeah, 2014 plate, 54,000 miles and had no problems with it apart from the lock.

@@Simon-wn2id That is the first time I have heard of a problem with them , steering lock breaking is very minor but still a pain on any car , I love mine , just a pity the silly sods didn't put a generator in it to charge the battery as you drive , stupid designer , they messed up on that bit ! Still a great cool looking car !

Too expensive, and full EV has now evolved towards having a great range. With the same weight and cost of this car. The solution for the time was great though. And it's still a great car to buy second hand.

It was brought out at the wrong time, around 2012 when there wasn’t as much electric or hybrids about. If it had come out now, it would of sold a lot more. Also it wasn’t advertised very well

@@Simon-wn2id I think it is still available in the US as a Chevy, is that the case?

yeah, but Robert's suggestion is that you will turn your ICE off when you get to a zone. It is easy for them to tell if a (say) Tesla isn't emitting anything, because it can't. Additionally, they can tell that my Audi A1 *is* emitting something, because it always does. So, of those two types of vehicles, they can tell who to fine, simply by (automatically) reading the number plates and looking up the type of car. However, that isn't true for the EREV, since they need to know if you've turned it off (or not) in order to tell if you are emitting anything. So, number plate readers aren't going to work, and I doubt it would be possible to tell from standing near one, or from a camera. I don't see any deterrent there at all. They would have to be able to tell you don't have the engine on when you enter the zone, and never turn it on while your in the zone. Alternatively, perhaps they don't much care if you do turn the engine on when you're in the zone...just assume some level of compliance and consider it better than it was before.

same thing

Yeah, as I said "the" Opel and not "a" Opel. But why would be interesting, other than that he is a britbong visiting the continent.

What's the problem of driving an Opel? They come with OnStar. Something Mercedes does not provide. But that's ok, I don't mind people driving something with the MB nameplate just to be in an MB even it is not that advanced. I mean, it's what you want to be seen in so other people think you're cool. I get it. Not smart but I get it. And you save money. The Volt does come with a certain price tag...not all people can afford it. But an MB? They're even bought by low income demographics...

There never was a plug-in hybrid era, and the way sales are going for EVs you have to wonder if there'll be an EV era. Just 4% of new car sales in the USA were EVs in 2021. Shockingly low.

@@markcynic808 You're not paying attention to Europe and China.

@@ramblerandy2397 You're not paying attention to the majority of the world's countries where EVs don't sell at all.

@@markcynic808 Indeed not. I'm paying attention to the countries where EVs are leading the way and other countries will eventually follow.

@@ramblerandy2397 They're leading the way in no country. The best is China with near 16% of new sales, then certain countries in Europe, but certainly not all. The poorer the country, the fewer the EV sales. Nigeria has 213 million people, and not one charging station anywhere. South Africa had 92 new EV sales in 2020 from a population of over 60 million. India, 1.3 billion people and EVs don't even account for 1% of cars there. South American countries aren't buying them, neither are SE Asian countries. Russia sold 687 new EVs in 2020 from a population of 145 million. Nowhere are EVs popular by any stretch of the imagination. Many countries state they'll ban production of ICE vehicles, but only a few have put this into law. Those who are buying EVs in wealthier countries are those that are wealthy enough to try them out and have used government grants and their number is finite. The poorer souls can't afford them now and won't be able to afford them anytime soon. So where will the new sales come from? It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next decade, but I don't see any great surge in sales. Perhaps we could donate EVs to the poorer countries just as we've donated Covid vaccines to them. Good luck with that.

I think the best one is Chevy Volt 300,000 miles and climbing