Vauxhall/Opel Ampera: Electric Cars with Generator

Vauxhall Ampera or Opel Ampera, I was waiting for this car for quite long time. I know, I do sound a bit funny, why I should wait a Vauxhall/Opel? Actually, Ampera is the electric car of the Vauxhall/Opel, that’s right they made an electric car that looks like a proper car and with an on-board generator.

You might be thinking there are plenty of electric cars why Ampera is different. Most of the electric cars do not have an on-board generator to charge the batteries, but Ampera does have one. And do not confuse with hybrid technology. In hybrid technology, petrol engine is also connected to wheels but with Ampera, the petrol engine is not connected to wheels and is only designed to charge the batteries when they are out of charge.

The most fundamental problem of electric cars is the charging for long journeys and with the Ampera, you don’t have to worry about this. You can drive as much as you want, until your tank is empty. Or you can charge the Ampera with any electric socket, board computer shows you the estimated charging time.

Today I had opportunity to drive the Ampera with pure electricity. And it was a bit different than the normal driving experience. First of all, when you start the engine there are no engine noise at all. Ampera is more silent than many laptops! 

Driving the Ampera is no different from an automatic car, just move the gear lever into Drive position and depress the throttle. As soon as you depress the throttle, you will feel the torque instantly. The electric motors have an advantage, they can deliver their maximum torque instantly. Ampera accelerates much better than many other cars, consumption is nearly to nothing. Interior comfort is much better than any other Vauxhall/Opel vehicle, sorry to say this. And Ampera features two screens, one for instrument panel and one for navigation. And both them offers very clear image, this is really important with screens.

Honestly, I was expecting a dull driving experience with a senseless steering wheel but it was totally the opposite. I had so much fun! Even though, I don’t like to drive car. Ampera is the future, until we have the hydrogen cars. You experience the electric power without worrying about the battery, this is what customers want!

However, there is a minor problem. Button on the central console are touch sensitive and it makes your life very hard while driving. With touch sensitive button, there are feedback from the button and you cannot be sure whether you pressed it or not. And also, accidental touch is unavoidable.

In general, I couldn’t find anything really annoying with Ampera. If I had the money, I would definitely ordered one today. It is fun, it very economical, it looks very good and it does offer a better experience than any other Vauxhall/Opel. You might be thinking, what about Fisker Karma? Fisker Karma is a luxury electric car with on-board generator and yes it does look better than Ampera and at them same time, more expensive.

Ampera is powered by a 73 PS electric motor, fuel is electric but you need to fill up petrol for generator. Fuel consumption is 1.3 lt/km (217.3 mpg) for extra-urban, 0.9 lt/km (315.9 mpg) for urban and 1.2 lt/km (235.4 mpg) for combined. And CO2 emission is only 27 gr/km.

Ampera Electron features;

Driver’s and front passenger’s airbags

Front seat side-impact airbags

Full-size curtain airbags

Driver’s and front passenger’s knee airbags

Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) with traction control and Emergency Brake Assist

Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)

CD/MP3 CD player with stereo radio

DAB digital radio

USB connection with iPod control

Aux-in socket

Hands-free mobile phone system with Bluetooth®

Multi-function trip computer

Electronic Climate Control (ECC)

Cruise control

Automatic lighting control

LED daytime running lights

Electric parking brake

Electrically operated front and rear windows

Electrically adjustable/heated door mirrors

17-inch five-Y-spoke alloy wheels with aero covers

Remote control security alarm

Leather seat facings with electrically heated front seats

Leather-covered steering wheel

Front and rear parking distance sensors

Rear view camera

Sat nav/DVD player

Sat nav system with voice activation

‘Pseudo 3D’ street level mapping for 20 European countries

Audio/video DVD player

Hard Drive Device (HDD) with 30GB music file capacity

Bose® ‘Energy Efficient Series’ sound system with six high-performance speakers and single subwoofer

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Paris Fashion Week from Instagram

Tomorrow is the last day of Paris Fashion Week and I wanted to share some of the interesting photos from the event that are present on Instagram. If you have opportunity to attend the Paris Fashion Week, you are very lucky otherwise, like me you may enjoy it from social media!

I found some good photos from the runway, Anna Wintour, shoes, and more!

If you do not wish your photos to appear in this post, please let me know from the Contact menu or from Twitter, I am going to remove them immediately.

All Instagram Photos’ copyrights belong to their users that are written above the each photo.

@anothermagazine

@elenascotti

@evelinakhromtchenko

@fashion_press

@fashion_press

@fashion_press

@hautepunch

@joshuajones81

@lfmare

@montaignemarket

@netaporter

@the_icon_concierge

@slkbysarahlewis

@violainebernard

@vnina

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£148 Million Lottery Winner from UK Bought A Ford Kuga!

Which car would you buy if you win £148 million ($238 million, €185 million) from lottery? Many of you will start the list with Bugatti, Bentley, or more down-to-earth with Maserati or Mercedes AMG or Audi. For many people winning lottery is the short-cut to buy a super luxury car, without thinking the consequence of ownership of a super luxury car.

During August, a family in UK won £148 million from lottery and I was expecting them to buy a Range Rover or BMW 7-Series or something similar to these. Because, they have lots of money to buy any car on the planet and most probably the interest income will be enough to cover the maintenance and other costs.

What did British lottery winner buy? They bought something very very down-to-earth, Ford Kuga! Ford Kuga only cost to them around £25,000. I don’t convert to other currencies, because it is nothing when you compare with £148 million!

On the other hand, Ford Kuga is not a bad despite the fact that it is end of its product lifecycle. And unfortunately Kuga does not offer any downsized engines, the engine range is 2-lt diesel with 140 PS or 163 PS and 2.5-lt 200 PS petrol engine. You may have double clutch automatic gearbox, and I highly recommend it. Despite limited engine range, Kuga is not that bad at all, you still have lots of electronic gadgets and safety systems. And it looks really good! If it was branded as Range Rover, many people would definitely buy it!

I hope lottery winner family with their Ford Kuga and it seems like they bought the full spec, Titanium X model. Honestly, they should have waited for the new model :(

Pictures' Copyrights

Ford

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