GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The Opel Ampera is the identical sister car to the Chevy Volt only sporting Opel design cues.  It will be built side-by-side with the Volt in Michigan for export to Europe where it will go on sale in 2011.

Like the Volt, only a little later, Opel is beginning to allow journalists to test drive an Ampera. Famed British publication Telegraph had its chance at the wheel and author Andrew English has produced an interesting review.  GM has been careful to only allow journalists, myself included, the chance to test drive Volts at modest sub-50 mph speeds, limited to pylon-flanked parking lot impromptu tracks.  English had the chance to take an Ampera out on the highway.

He was pleased with the spacious and attractive interior calling it “comfortable, classy and commodious.”

He found acceleration strong noting the car “charges hard” up to 50 mph. After that he perceived, “the single-speed electric motor’s flat torque curve has begun a nose dive and acceleration at high speeds is poor.” Perhaps this is why GM hasn’t allowed US drives beyond 50 MPH. That was the fastest speed I could hit on a roughly half mile track, though one US reporter was said to take a Volt to 92 MPH at the Warren Tech Center, on a side road.

English suspects the perceived power fade at high speed is because the Volt/Ampera’s top speed is100 mph which is lower than most similar-sized gas sedans which is typically 130 mph.

He claims GM has a solution forthcoming:

General Motors is working on the problem and this autumn plans to unveil a mechanical direct-drive from the engine to the front wheels through the existing twin-clutch planetary gearbox. This would reduce the energy losses of turning petrol power into electricity to drive the car at high speeds, and would also give the Ampera more spritely overtaking performance.

This claim, if true, is rather shocking because it flies in the face of everything GM has said in the past and would mean the gas engine could power on even during the first 40 miles.

I reached out to Volt spokesperson Rob Peterson who with utmost respect for the reporter denies this is the case.  He also notes the Ampera English drove is a 65% calibration build, whereas current Volt test cars are at a much more refined 99%.  This is what Peterson had to say about the powertrain change claim:

This report is inaccurate. First off, the Volt cannot be driven without electric power. It always makes use of electric power within the drive unit.

Secondly, we have no plans to make any mechanical or control strategy changes prior to launch.

The team is in the final stages of validation and durability and have not identified any reason to make any changes. We have a very innovative drive unit that includes a number of clutches and a planetary gear-set which is highly efficient and exists in our pre-production vehicles today. For competitive reasons we won’t provide more details on the operation at this point, but will soon.

Source (Telegraph)

This week in Dudenhofen Germany, Opel gave assurances that the Ampera was “on track” for production in the fall of 2011, hinted at pricing, and once again opened the door to a Europe-based production facility for the vehicle in the short term.

Stateside, the very first pre-production Ampera came to life as it rolled off the line in Warren, Michigan on Friday April 23rd. Andrew Farrah, who is also Vehicle Chief Engineer for the Ampera, marked the occasion by also saying, “We’re right on target for producing the Ampera for European markets later next year.”

The Ampera is the sister car to the Chevy Volt for Europe, and therefore it will only travel in kilometers; it has a range of “up to” 60 of them on electric power, and over 500 with the aid of a small gas engine once the 16 kWh battery is depleted.

At some point during the press junket nefarious ‘company sources’ reared their ugly head again and said the Ampera will likely cost about €40,000…or as we are fond of expressing prices here at GM-Volt, $53,000 in US dollars.

To be fair you have to allow for a number of factors to get a realistic translation of what a car priced in Europe would likely sell for on US shores. (VAT allowance, EUR/USD pegging, source of supply/labor, etc)

I won’t go through that calculation specifically – it would be needless long, and the end result would be several readers gouging their eyes out and submitting claims to our legal department for damages, but by my estimation 40,000 Euros on a Ampera works out to around a $34,000-$36,000 price point in the US.

Nick Reilly, who is Opel’s CEO, also mentioned this week that while the Ampera will be built in the US and imported into Europe, GM still plans on European production at some point.

In a statement to a German weekly (WirtschaftsWoche) he said, “The first Amperas will come from the USA next year, but it is our aim to build the car in Europe as soon as possible. We have not yet decided where that will be.”

It is interesting that the focus is on the where it will be built and not the when, previously when a Magna-GM deal was in the works for Opel, the notion of a European made Ampera was put almost on permanent hiatus, with our own sources at GM-Volt.com predicting that Ampera production in the near term to be “minimal.”

Both England (Ellesmere Port) and Germany (Bochum) have expressed an interest in producing the Ampera at their factories, and have bid up GM in a effort to green light production in their countries. I would think that the statement from Mr. Reilly signifies a not-so-open solicitation for the two regions to come back to the table with refreshed incentives, and if they are good enough, Opel will make a decision to build.

Given the current state of GM’s relationship with Germany (and its laborers) after the Magna deal fell through…and Germany’s own pre-election struggles coming to terms with the bailing out Greece (and potentially a good portion of the Eurozone), I think this is a case of Opel seeing how much support they can ring up from England with this project. /the dream of a European made Ampera lives on

The Opel Ampera is the sister car to the Chevy Volt, sharing the same powertrain, interior and basic sheet metal, but with unique styling cues germaine to GM’s European brand.

Though we have seen several Chevrolet Volt preproduction vehilces on the road, only now are the first Amperas hitting the pavement.

The car is expected to begin series production in late 2011 for sales in Europe.

The Geneva Auto Show is set to open in Switzerland on Sunday.

GM is launching a real-world road trip of an Opel Ampera leaving from Opel’s headquarters in Russelheim Gernmanay, and travelling non stop 370 miles to Geneva. The first 40 miles will be purely electric, and the remainder covered by the gas generator.

AutoExpress claims the car will complete the trip from Germany “producing around 40g/km of CO2 and managing 176mpg economy.” Not sure how they came up with that, unless recharging is planned along the way.

“I am really looking forward to putting a lot of “miles” on our first Ampera prototype during this maiden test on public roads,” said Opel/Vauxhall Director of Electric Vehicle Implementation, Gherardo Corsini who will be at the wheel. “With 370 Nm of instantaneous, electric torque under my right foot, it promises to be an interesting and almost silent drive to Geneva.”

I aked Opel spokesperson Andrew Marshall whether they expeced to cover the distance on a single tank of gas.

“The drive to Geneva is a first for us in every way,” he replied. “We don’t know exactly what to expect.”

Sounds like fun. The car embarks on Sunday at 930AM CET. We’ll be watching.  You can follow them here.  Its a small world after all.

I suspect Nissan won’t be trying this trip in its Leaf EV.

Source (Opel)