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Opel Ampera Passes Production Milestone
27 April 2010
The Opel Ampera—the Chevy Volt’s European cousin—passed an important milestone on 23 April when the first pre-production Model Year 2012 Ampera rolled off the line at GM’s Pre-Production Operations assembly line in Warren, Michigan.
Assembly workers will build more pre-production Amperas in the coming months. These pre-production vehicles will be used instead for testing and validating the production intent design as well as developing the final vehicle software and controls.
Engineers in Europe and the United States also use them to tune the vehicle’s overall driving experience. Some of these Amperas will have very short lives as they will be used in safety and structural integrity testing.
We’re right on target for producing the Ampera for European markets later next year. There’s still work to be done, but being able to drive an Opel Ampera off our pre-production line is a great accomplishment for the teams here and in Europe.
—Andrew Farah, Vehicle Chief Engineer for the Ampera
The Opel Ampera extended-range electric vehicle delivers up to 60 kilometers 37 miles) of pure electric driving before an engine-generator kicks in to sustain the battery charge and seamlessly extend the range to more than 500 kilometers (311 miles). It is scheduled to go on sale end 2011.
April 27, 2010 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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I had assumed that the Opel Ampera would be built in Europe. This make it sound like it will be built in the US and exported to Europe. Maybe it is only the pre-production units that are being manufactured in the Warren MI.
Posted by: sd | April 27, 2010 at 07:41 AM
With gasoline costing Europeans $6-8 dollars a gallon, and diesel a little less - the Ampera finds a huge potential market of new EV buyers. In France where they produce 70% electric from local nuclear, why not buy an ER-EV and quit buying gas except for long trips?
Major EV product offerings should do well in a Europe saddled with incredibly expensive petro fuels.
Posted by: sulleny | April 27, 2010 at 10:22 AM
sulleny:
I agree with you on this one. USA and Canada could do likewise by progressively raising FED gas taxes (by $0.01/L/month or about $0.0376/US gal/month) and simultaneously reducing income taxes to make the exercise 50% to 75% revenue neutral. During the first year, the extra gas taxes could go up every second month only. Surpluses could be used as incentives to buy e-vehicles and to refund low wage people paying little of no income taxes. Almost everybody would accept this progressive compensated approach for the good of the nations and as a way to free ourself from oil addiction and oil wars.
Posted by: HarveyD | April 29, 2010 at 12:51 PM