After seven years of Wizzing the time had come for a change. Back in 2007 there was little else available, but electric vehicles have come on a long way in that time. The most significant driver for a change was something larger that we could get the whole family in – the G-Wiz notionally has four seats but the rear ones are too small for adults or car seats effectively making the G-Wiz a 2+2. I considered various alternatives and eventually settled on a Vauxhall Ampera encouraged by a substantial discount.
The Ampera is a four seater hatchback with an electric range of up to 50 miles. It’s actually a plug-in hybrid, so it initially runs as a fully electric vehicle, but then when the battery is exhausted it runs as a petrol-electric hybrid. Most days (and indeed weeks) I use no petrol, but occasionally I can do long trips of a few hundred miles without stopping to charge. For most of the period of my ownership my lifetime average economy has been 250+ mpg, but that’s dropped to 190+ mpg following a few round trips to Cheshire.
