Vauxhall has discounted the retail price of its Ampera electric-petrol hybrid engine model following disappointing sales of alternatively-fuelled vehicles (AFVs).
The brand has confirmed the discount will be £3,500 on the Positiv and Electron models, following initial reports of a £3,000 list-price reduction on the range, meaning the Ampera is available from £28,750.
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The price also includes the UK Government’s Plug-in Grant of £5,000 to encourage uptake of lower-emission vehicles.
However, the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association has questioned the worth of such subsidies, with CAP also suggesting alternative incentives should be sought as any withdrawal of grants would hurt the future values and market of AFVs.
Chevrolet, Vauxhall’s fellow subsidiary brand under General Motors, will also reduce the asking price of its version of the Ampera model, the Volt, although the value of the reduction is yet to be confirmed.
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By GlobalDataDuncan Aldred, chairman of Vauxhall, told headlineauto sales of electric vehicles across Europe were only at 30% of expected levels.
Aldred said the Ampera model was never intended to make money but its development and marketing was an "investment" in a technology for which "production costs are coming down all the time".
Likewise, energy suppliers, motor finance brokers, wholesale funders and captive finance providers have been keen to back the finance market for AFVs, including a similar reasoning. As Andreas Atkins, head of the electric vehicle (EV) services team at British Gas told Motor Finance: "There was a time when there weren’t petrol stations on every corner."
Particularly, AFVs and EVs have seen a maturing finance proposition, with Toyota Financial Services offering PCP on its hybrid models, RCI Financial Services marketing the Nissan Leaf on an "aggressive" PCP with battery lease, and intermediary Car Loan 4U brokering its first retail finance deal for an EV, the first private registration of a Mia-Electric in the UK.
Speaking to Motor Finance in 2012, Doug Gillies, managing director of the Toyota captive partner, said hybrid vehicles held residual values better and attracted "early adopters" of the technology to PCP.
richard.brown@timetric.com
