By Faye Sunderland 21 May 2012
The Vauxhall Ampera is to become the first range-extended model in the UK to join a car club. Vauxhall’s newly-launched model is to join the world’s biggest car sharing network as part of a six month pilot partnership with Zipcar.
The Ampera joins Zipcar’s self-service rental fleet in London, from where the car club’s members will be able, from today, to reserve an Ampera using either the Zipcar website or a smartphone and the company’s own hire car app.
As part of Zipcar’s 1,700 strong fleet of London vehicles, the Ampera model will be easy to spot, thanks to a colourful livery featuring scenes of flowering meadows.
The Vauxhall Ampera combines a 150hp electric motor with a 1.4 petrol engine and is capable of a range of up to 60 miles using the power stored in its 16kwh lithium ion battery alone. The petrol engine is used to generate electricity to drive the electric motor and boost that range up to as much as 310 miles. It is rated as emitting just 27g/km CO2 and returning 235.4mpg.
On sale now, the Ampera is priced from £29,995 including the Government’s Plug-In Car Grant worth £5,000.
Zipcar is the world's leading car sharing network with approximately 700,000 members and 9,000 vehicles in urban areas and college campuses throughout the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Zipcar offers more than 30 makes and models of self-service vehicles by the hour or day to residents and businesses looking for an alternative to the high costs and hassles of owning a car.
Commenting on the NEW partnership, Mark Walker, General Manager of Zipcar UK said: “At Zipcar we are committed to positive change in our city environments. We believe that this pilot marks a step change in the evolution of electric vehicles in London and represents a major advance for London and Londoners. Thanks to the Ampera’s unique technology, on any given day, Zipcar members can be doing multiple short trips using only the stored electric battery power or longer trips powered by electricity generated by the on board range extender. For the first time in an electric vehicle, members need not worry about range or recharging.”
Categories:Vauxhall
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