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Britain's unique driving conditions could double the tailpipe emissions of the Vauxhall Ampera, the range-extended electric car, in real-world driving conditions.

Vauxhall forecasts that the Ampera might achieve a hugely-impressive 40g/km in the EU combined cycle — largely because 60km of the 100km test will be covered with the Ampera running solely on electrical power.

The other 40km will be covered with the electricity generated by a 1.4-litre petrol engine running at a constant ...Read the full article

You can't really blame the manufacturer for the customers inability to plug it in, and I guess there will be some laziness that causes this too. Average customer use of current cars bear little resemblance to the official government figures anyway.

The more I read about this car the more I think it's the short - medium term future and I can't wait to see it here.

Orangewheels:

You can't really blame the manufacturer for the customers inability to plug it in, and I guess there will be some laziness that causes this too.

True, but you can blame governement and town planners.... Round where I live they want to build a 'community'. So they looked into history and decided that we had good communities here in the UK back in the days when everyone played in the streets and we chatted over the front gate... When there were far fewer car cars.

Needless to say everyone parks on the pavement outside their house because they do not want to walk the 200m to the shared parking/garage space. Yes, this place I am speaking of in 5-8 years old! Now the council can't understand why we have this problem!

Orangewheels:

The more I read about this car the more I think it's the short - medium term future and I can't wait to see it here.

 

 
The more I read about this car, the more I want to go for a blast in my Alfa V6, while I can still enjoy driving.

The whole thing sounds like a nightmare. 

Just goes to show that the official EU emissions/economy test is utterly meaningless when comparing conventional cars with hybrids and range-extended electrics.
They should test the car with the battery starting off near-empty, then sell it with the caveat that if you charge it up from the wall it will produce zero local emissions.

I would be confident in saying that I think that the car will be lower than 80g/km (which is still very low.....)....if I was guessing I would say it would be 60g/km maybe 70g/km when released.......but we will have to wait and see.

This is absolutely the way to go and the generation after this will be even less polluting...it would then I would guess be between 40 and 50 g/km.....but that would be what.....about 2019!

The other really exciting thing is when they reduce the size of the platform and place it in an even small car.......20g/km to 30 g/km??

It also shows the Toyota system to be "pants".....and people reckon Toyota are good??...GM have (I think) had the voltec system under development for years; I am sure its at least ten years (but could be wrong).

Geetee40:

True, but you can blame governement and town planners..

Many "politically correct" local authorities will only give planning permission for blocks of flats or office development if they do NOT have any parking provision for residents/workers in the deluded belief that they can thus encourage a car-less community to develope. It seems to me that the other major problem is the standard size of garages that are included when provided at all, the standard size is really far too narrow for most modern cars and need to be wider to allow for use when re-charging a car. I would certainly be reluctant to leave my car being re-charged in the street or where it could be easily tampered with at night.

North:

It also shows the Toyota system to be "pants".....and people reckon Toyota are good??...GM have (I think) had the voltec system under development for years; I am sure its at least ten years (but could be wrong).

You and many others continuously tell us that you think the Prius is "pants" (to use your own expression) but here you betray your own view by explaining the true situation - GM's solution may well be the best but as you say it has been under development for many years and is still not yet on sale.................whereas Toyota have had working Hybrids on sale for ten years or more and sold more than a million reliable, durable and economical Hybrids. I think most reasonable unbiased people would agree that Toyota is doing better than GM in this case.