2009 Opel Ampera, new Euro Volt
January 27, 2009 by George Skentzos
Opel is set to reveal the Ampera Electric car at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, effectively unveiling the European design for the Chevrolet Volt.
The five-door, four-seat Opel Ampera uses an identical platform to the Volt, utilising GM’s Voltec electric propulsion technology.
Like its North American sibling, the Ampera is capable of short trips up to 60km on batter power alone charged via a standard household power outlet.
“With the Ampera, Opel will be the first European automobile manufacturer to provide customers several hundred kilometres of non-stop electric driving,” said Alain Visser, GM Europe Chief Marketing Officer.
Beyond this distance, an onboard small combustion engine generates electricity which in turn drives the motor and charges the battery.
The Ampera is well-suited to the daily driving schedule of most European customers with around 80 per cent of German drivers travelling less than 50km daily.
Print it: 
I think this is the Holden Volt.
I wonder which version Holden will get when we eventually get it? Not that it will make much of a difference because it will be the same car underneath, but usually Australian’s like euro styling more then US
what im keen to find out about these electric cars is how many kw’s of electricity does it consume to travel 60k’s???
No one ever talks about that side of things. Everyone just assumes that electricity grows on trees
anyone have any idea???
with that aside, this sounds like a promising product.
if they get it right, and if the quality is there, this could make GM a tidy fortune.
With the Ampera, Opel will be the first European automobile manufacturer to provide customers several hundred kilometres of non-stop electric driving,
Can someone please explain how they make this comment when after 60km the cars onboard generator has to start up to provide more power??
Bit like saying an Oberon classSubmarine could go around the world on its batteries. (can do if you don’t class running generators to charge them as using a motor…)
Frontman:
There is a small petro-electric engine (I think it might be turbocharged) which starts up after 60km and spins a generator to provide electricity to the motors.
I don’t know whether after this it will be more/less efficient than a regular petrol car but I assume that without any complex drivetrains or drivetrain losses that it might be more efficient??
Electricity is never green unless from renewable non-polluting sources (say wind or solar [then again one can argue the manufacturing/building process]) but I’m assuming its supposed CO2 output will vary depending on what powers the power station (wouldn’t be very green in Australia thanks to coal). I’m also guessing that it wil still be greener than a regular petrol/diesel car as electricity transfer is quite efficient (less loss of power) and there is no “refining” step.
Frontman: sorry, misread your post.
There is some truth to that statement – as the electric motors will continue to drive the vehicle so in essence it is still being powered by electricity, though from now a not so green source. Of course such a comment can be misleading, depending on how you read it (I’ll say this is a common marketing ploy :P)
I think they call it all electric, cause the engine only charges the batteries; it doesn’t actually connect to the driving wheels.
Therefore the only drive is electric.
Splitting hairs, but I think GM is on the right track.
In the future, other sources should be able to be plugged in.
Fuel Cell; Diesel power; Solar top up; all to keep the batteries charged, whilst the car just runs on electricity.
Hope Holden gets the same suspension tune as the Ampera.
I’d assume that Opel would want it to point a little more sharply than the average Chev econobox.
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that Andrew M is playing a very different role in these discussions lately??
Once the side line commentator, it seems he has taken a more agressive approach…. Even a few digs at other writers have come out…..
Not a bad thing, just an observation..
Andrew?
LOL, the US gets the VOLT.
Europe gets the AMPera.
What……Australia gets the kilaWATT?
Australia gets….Holden Vomit.
it looks liek it will be a volt with just a new front and rear.i was hoping the ugly sides would go.Still it makes sense for holden to import/build the ampera and call it the volt as the insignia is coming the astra has a 40% chance of coming .At the moment holden is at a cross roads and it has about 3 choices.
1.get rid of the euros and adapt the chevy design language with differnet grill.
2.keep the current with euro and korean
3.keep the euro and create chev as a seperate brand.
ATM id say holden will do number 2 as the sketch of the new torana has euro cues,I would say that the VF commodore will have a more insignia style gril land tailights to align itself for when/if the insignia/astra arrivee
I like this car, but I hope GM are looking at different models and styles to employ this technology to; wagon, hatch, a sedan that sits five adults, coupe, SUV.
Electric only drive would have to be more efficient than the combination drive as in the Prius.
No gearbox and smaller petrol engine designed to run at constant speed/load etc and electric drive motor is more efficient anyway.
Also simpler electronics as no split between petrol and electric drive.
I would have thought Toyota would have chosen this route to start with although battery tech may have been limitation back then.
Building a good electric car cannot be that difficult as I believe there is a small Melbourne based company that turns Getz into all electric and the range was better than this.
i can’t see myself driving an electric car sooner or later. they might have a cute design but they look like girl cars and with those performances don’t know which speed fanatic would go for an ampera or volt.
Crouchy – maybe Andrew M has lost patients with posting well thought out arguments on here because people just ignore them and stick strictly to their pre-conceived notions about a product and/or company. Can’t blame him…
“what im keen to find out about these electric cars is how many kw’s of electricity does it consume to travel 60k’s???”
Bizzare, i was talking a friend about this just the other day. Partly prompty by an episode of the series “Future Car” on descovery.
With the new Mini-E we can at last see some good pound for pound comparisons of EV’s vs traditional combustion. EV’s use energy in a much more efficient way, where a combustion engine can only use about 25% of the available energy in the fuel. Then you’ve got regenative breaking, and other smarts to make it go further.
Based on coal fired electricy creating 1.39Kg of Co2 per Kwh, and comparing the Mini-E with the 1.6ltr Clubman. The overall Co2 emissions to travel 100kms would be 15.5kg for the Mini-E and 16.6kg for the Clubman.
If you then opt for a small 1Kw PV Solar array, you could completely offset about 15000kms per year in the Mini-E. IE Zero emissions travel vs 2.5 tonnes of Co2 created by the clubman.
But there is a catch, 1) I’ve done my figures with only 1 coffee consumed 2) The clubman seats 4 people vs 2.
Oh Year, as for the will we get the chev Volt or Euro Volt. I think the chev already looks very euro. Especially when compared to the original concept:-
caradvice.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/volt_003.jpg
Maybe the yanks are starting to realise they’re incapable of designing beautiful cars :)
i wonder if the commodore will adopt headlights like that for the global design, effectively making it look like a falcon.
Nah Holdens effort would probably be a Daewoo Nicad.
Can’t wait for electric cars. Its gonna be a great second car dfor doing the local taxi runnabout stuff. I currently do about 240k’s of urban city stuff.