Vauxhall grabs three awards at RAC Future Car Challenge

GM, and its UK division of Vauxhall, took three awards from the RAC Future Car Challenge for green technology in both its production and prototype vehicles.

The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) Future Car Challenge is an annual event in which a fleet of vehicles are driven the 63 miles from Brighton to London in the UK, with the winner being the car which used the least energy to get there. This year’s winner was the Renault Zoe, a pure electric car which will be going on sale in Europe soon. But the big news for us in the US was the three awards grabbed by Vauxhall, GM’s UK division. Two of these were won by the Vauxhall Ampera, a rebadging of the Opel Ampera, basically a Chevy Volt with some slightly different styling.

The Ampera took the award for Most Efficient Regular Car (The Zoe being much smaller than the Ampera, the Most Efficient Small Car winner is generally the outright winner), as well as the title for Best Range Extender/Plug-In Hybrid. GM’s HydroGen4 (entered as a Vauxhall) hydrogen prototype took the prototype vehicle class title of Best Fuel Cell Vehicle. This is a nice feather in GM’s cap, especially at a time when they are losing huge amounts of money in the European market. But it is also important to us here. Although we may not get the Renault Zoe in the US, the Volt has become a very high-profile car.

It has been criticized over and over for having been built at a time when GM was in need of government assistance to stay afloat. But this award, among others, shows that the technology works, and that the car wasn’t some cobbled-together political tool for GM to pretend to be green. Add to this the fact that Consumer Reports recently named the Volt as the most reliable car that GM makes, and the criticism starts to look a bit hollow.

The awards from the RAC shouldn’t really come as too big a surprise. We know the Ampera to be an efficient vehicle, especially within this kind of distance. What is potentially more interesting is the prototype vehicles. There is a lot of guesswork out there about what the future of transportation holds, and there was an unfortunate lack of variety among even the prototypes. The HydroGen4 represents the biggest deviation among the award winners from the norm of plug-in electric vehicles. These vehicles have some significant drawbacks, and the potential is there for other alternative fuels to take the lead if a way can be found to make them viable. This might not be hydrogen, but it’s always good to see manufacturers exploring other avenues.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

GM’s knuckles rapped over misleading Vauxhall Ampera UK TV ad

Vauxhall has had its TV advert for the Ampera banned in the UK, after its 360-mile all-electric range claim was deemed to be misleading.

A television advert for the Vauxhall Ampera, or Chevrolet Volt as it’s known in the USA, has been deemed to be misleading by the Advertising Standards Agency in the UK.

It’s a simple advert, comparing the Ampera to several athlete’s incredible physical achievements, and closes with the onscreen statement “Ampera, up to 360 mile range,” while narrator Patrick Stewart says “Driving electricity further” as the car disappears into the distance.

The combination of those statements, plus the more subtle presence of power lines and the healthy, wooded area through which the Ampera drives, suggests the car is a lean, green, solely electrically powered machine.

It also led three people to complain to the ASA that the advert was misleading. The reason? It suggests the car can travel 360 miles using only electricity.

This is true, but not quite accurate, as after between 38 and 50 miles, the car switches from electric power to something called a “range extender,” which is a gas-driven generator. On a full tank, the car can then run for another 310-plus miles before requiring some kind of fuel — be it electricity or gas to generate it.

Heated debate

Vauxhall argues that since the engine isn’t connected to the wheels, its small-print at the base of the screen clears them of any deception. The small-print says “Comparison based on electric vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles driven electrically at all times, even when an additional power source is generating electricity.”

While it does acknowledge the presence of a “range extender” system, not everyone knows what this means, and as there is no mention of an internal combustion engine at all, the ASA decided to uphold the complaint and ban the ad in its current form.

Vauxhall’s marketing folk will have to come up with a revised advert before it can be shown on UK TV screens again. By comparison, US adverts for the Volt include this informative spot, which describes in detail how the car works, while even the owner testimonials used the word “gas” in the small print when discussing range.

The operating range of electric cars is a subject that prompts heated debate. Nissan for example, in last year’s UK advert for the all-electric Leaf, avoided the subject altogether, while UK motoring show Top Gear famously incurred Tesla’s wrath in 2011, after it demonstrated the car’s limited range in a typically irreverent manner.

Vauxhall/GM isn’t helping the cause with this type of advert either. Range-extended electric cars are innovative and interesting, and the Ampera is a great-looking — although expensive — vehicle. Trying to attract uninformed customers this way shouldn’t really be necessary.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com