Zipcar and Vauxhall announced electric vehicle pilot program in UK in which all-new electric Vauxhall Ampera will be available to Zipcar members for the next six months.
It’s the first time in the UK that a car sharing club has offered access to an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV), and Zipcar members from today will be able to reserve the Ampera online or using their smart phones, just as they would any other of the 1,700 cars across the Capital.
However, unlike other vehicles in the Zipcar fleet, the Amperas will be extremely easy to spot on the Capital’s busy streets thanks to their eye-catching full-body wrap liveries of spots and country meadows.
European Car of the Year for 2012, the Ampera is a full-performance and full-speed Extended-Range Electric Vehicle, which can travel free of tailpipe emissions for up to 50 miles, after which it shifts to a petrol generator that produces electricity to keep it going an additional 310 miles on a full tank of petrol. Because many trips taken by Zipcar members are less than 35 miles, it is anticipated that a large number of journeys will use electric power only.