General Motors is currently planning to build 15,000 extended-range Ampera EVs for the first 12 months of sales in Europe, due to start in November; the company predicts that most will come to the UK.

Nick Reilly, president of GM Europe, said that GM is confident that it "will sell every Ampera we can make. What we don't know is the size of the market and we won't know that for two to three years”.

What is known is that when the Ampera does come to Europe it will have an additional ‘hold' mode (allowing drivers to reserve the electric mode until they are in a town or city).

This will also feature on the Chevrolet Volt when it goes on sale in Europe.

It's a feature that allows the driver to hold the charge of the battery by using the range-extending petrol engine until he or she wants to switch to pure EV power - inside the London congestion zone for example.