Opel confirms electric future with Ampera-e

Opel has confirmed that it will be introducing a re-badged version of the recently launched Chevrolet Bolt electric car, and it will go on sale across Europe next year.

Set to be called the Ampera-e, the new small car (it’s sized roughly half-way between a Corsa and an Astra) comes with some pretty impressive performance figures - a potential one-charge range of 320km from a 60kWh battery stack for a start, with promised recharging times that claim to add as much as 40km for every hour you leave it plugged in. 0-100kmh is done in a claimed 7secs, and the top speed is limited to 150kmh.

Announcing the Ampera-e today at the CAR Symposium in Bochum, Germany, GM chairman and chief executive Mary Barra said: "GM and Opel have always been convinced that electric cars will play a defining role in future mobility. The game-changing technology of the Ampera-e is a significant step toward realizing that vision. Our new battery electric car is also another boost for Opel's reputation for making innovative engineering widely accessible."

“Electric vehicles have the potential to make a significant contribution to climate protection and emissions reduction”, says Opel group CEO Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann. “The new Ampera-e will open the road to electric mobility by breaking down the barriers of high price and short driving range.”

The question is quite how the public will take to it. Naming it Ampera is a bit of a risk, considering the tide of disinterest that accompanied the launch of the last car to bear that name, a plug-in hybrid saloon based on the Chevrolet Volt. The second generation Volt, already on sale in the US, has not yet been earmarked for Opel-ising for European customers.

The Bolt may also struggle against the current trend of low prices for petrol and diesel. With prices at the pump tumbling, it seems fewer of us are considering a move to electric power, in spite of the obvious environmental benefits. According to Forbes magazine, US sales of hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) have tailed off noticeably since fuel prices began to fall. “The response to fuel prices seems clear, with high prices driving greater market share for the EV family while pickup sales dropped, but the past year has seen a significant reversal. Market share for hybrid vehicles, which make less of a political statement than battery electric vehicles but seem responsive to economic motives, dropped sharply in 2015 (about 15 per cent) while plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles experienced the first year without significant sales growth.”