Vauxhall Ampera Tries its Luck as an Ambulance Apprentice

The Vauxhall Ampera, which is the European version of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, is going to be incorporated into the emergency fleet of the United Kingdom’s NHS Trust. The United Kingdom’s Yorkshire ambulance service would like to see how vehicles like this could be incorporated into such a fleet and reduce its carbon footprint and fuel expenditure by 30% by 2015.

Richard Smith, the Fleet Manager for the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: “We are very excited to be the first ambulance service to trial an electric vehicle that will respond to incidents, reduce our emissions and provide significant savings on fuel costs.  As it has both electric and petrol power we are confident that it is a viable alternative.”

This is reminiscent of the Hong Kong police force’s decision to replace their gasoline-fueled motorcycles with Brammo electric motorcycles. Municpalities the world over are exploring alternative fuel and electric vehicles as alternatives to petrol-powered cars, as the price of oil inches ever higher. But will Americans ever see Chevy Volt cop cars or ambulances? We won’t hold our breath.

Source: CarScoops