GM Chairman & CEO Mary Barra announced this week that the company’s European brand Opel will launch a version of the all-electric Bolt. The new vehicle will be called ‘Ampera-e’, keeping up with the automaker’s naming scheme since the Volt is called the Ampera in Europe.
Barra commented on the announcement this week at the CAR Symposium in Bochum, Germany:
“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.”
It’s always weird when they don’t clearly state that it’s a rebranded car from the main brand, it’s not like they are fooling anyone, or that people would expect them to develop another platform just for Europe.
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- Bolt
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- Ampera-e
The Bolt, or Ampera-e, is a small 5-door all-electric car with 200 miles of range, which starts at $37,500 in the US before incentives. We had the chance to get a test drive last month at CES.
Opel group CEO Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann about the announcement:
“Electric vehicles have the potential to make a significant contribution to climate protection and emissions reduction. The new Opel Ampera-e will open the road to electric mobility by breaking down the barriers of high price and short driving range.”
While the Bolt is expected to launch in the US later this year, Opel said the Ampera-e will arrive in Europe in 2017.
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Are they trying to kill it before it’s born??? Ampera-e?? WTH?? Was that dreamt up by 5 guys sharing 2 brain cells?
Yeah, they should have revived that old Opel Blitz name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Blitz
That is a nice fit for the Bolt. 🙂
That design makes it seem like they are trying hard to make it fail.
200 miles = 321 km ……….. 500 km is what we need