Set for a world debut at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show, the Opel Ampera will use the same Voltec powertrain as the 2011 Chevrolet Volt. GM released a teaser shot of the five-passenger sedan and it's pretty obvious that Opel tried its best to differentiate the European sedan from its U.S. counterpart.
Then again, given how large a role aerodynamics plays in a car like this, the Ampera probably won't deviate from the Volt all that much. GM's claims for its fuel efficiency are quite familiar, metrically speaking of course, about 60 kilometers on pure electric and "several hundred kilometers of non-stop electric driving."
No word yet on whether or not GM sees any problem with the fact that there's an electric vehicle called the Aptera being built in the U.S. but we're pretty sure no one will confuse the two, except us maybe.
greenpony says:
06:04 PM, 01/26/09
I knew GM was pretty bad off, but I had no idea things were this bad. Resorting to stealing other vehicles' names? What next, will the redesigned Silverado become the Chevy F-150, or the next-gen Sky become the Saturn Z4? Maybe we'll see Cadillac IS350's driving down the road in the near future.
jederino says:
07:04 PM, 01/26/09
The front treatment does look a little more zesty - I like it!
hondacura4 says:
07:11 PM, 01/26/09
I think GM should keep the Chevy Volt name as it would give it more of a global presence. A car of this type needs a global image.
roar02ram says:
07:46 PM, 01/26/09
+1 hondacura - and it should have the same styling, too. I'll take this rendition, thank you very much.
fst1 says:
08:19 PM, 01/26/09
Sorry all, my mistake, GM is clearly not that dense, the correct name is Ampera. How could I have confused the two?
EH
daytona_500 says:
08:59 PM, 01/26/09
Volt, now Ampera, are they going to introduce an Ohma next? :)
firstwagon says:
03:50 PM, 01/27/09
"Volt, now Ampera, are they going to introduce an Ohma next? :)"
They were but there was too much resistence.
greenpony says:
10:25 AM, 01/29/09
lol@firstwagon