Vauxhall Ampera costs from £34,995

Vauxhall Ampera costs from £35k

The European and UK version of the Chevy Volt – the Vauxhall Ampera – will cost from £34,995 when it arrives on UK roads in May 2012.

Actually, this isn’t the first time we’ve had a price for the Vauxhall Ampera. Just over a year ago Vauxhall announced it would cost from £33,995 when it arrived in the UK in 2012. But it seems Vauxhall think the Ampera needs to cost even more than that, so they’ve announced the starting point for the new Ampera as £34,995. Ouch.

True, you will get the £5k taxpayer bribe to grab the Ampera, but even at the £29,995 you’ll actually pay for the entry-level Ampera, it’s a lot of money for a Focus type car with a range extender.

Spec on the Ampera isn’t too terrible though, with even the entry-level Ampera getting DAB, Cruise, Alloys and 7″ touchscreen as standard. Move up a notch to the Ampera Positiv and you get Leather, parking sensors and rear view camera. But then the price jumps to £37,250. Top of the range Ampera Electron adds Infotainment with SatNav, Bose, DVD, 30GB hard drive and voice control. But the Electron will cost £38,995.

Vauxhall has appointed 23 specialist Ampera dealers round the country to deal with the range extender gubbins and say you should be within an hours drive from a specialist Ampera dealer no matter where you are in the country. Sadly, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to visit your specialist Ampera dealer on electric power only as the Ampera can only do 35 miles before it needs to revert to its engine. An engine that averages around 44mpg.

So what to do if you don’t want to spend up to £39k on an Ampera, but still want a five-seat family car that does better than 44mpg? Well, you could always grab a new Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 with the 125PS engine and average 47.9mpg for £17.5k for every day, and spend the other £21.5k on a nice 2004 SL 55 AMG or a similar age 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet for weekend fun.

Tough decision.