Was, Ihr Volt Ampera? Vergessen Es!

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: July 4th, 2011

End of the year, Europeans can delight in the Made in America Opel Ampera, which is a rebadged and slightly reskinned (see picture) Volt. But don’t rush to your friendly Opel dealer to put in your pre-order: The Ampera is already sold out.

According to Automobilwoche [sub], Opel already has more than 5,000 pre-orders for the imported from Detroit Hamtramck plug-in-hybrid. There won’t be more than 5,000 Amperas coming to the Old Country this year. Better luck next year!

Money apparently is no object. The Ampera lists at €42,900 ($ 62,200 – usual disclaimers apply). Subsidies? What subsidies? Most European governments don’t even subsidize pure EVs. Hybrids? “Warum?”

#Ampera #BertelSchmitt #Europe #EV #Hybrid #Opel

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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8 of 27 comments

StevenJJ on Jul 04, 2011

People here want low running costs - at all costs! Spend thousands on a new car to save a few hundred quid on annual road tax - I'm in! To be fair the plug-in element of this car is new and exciting and probably for that reason alone they'll sell them all. Then make more. Then sell all those... easily. The technical possibility nee dream of never having to take this car to a petrol station will guarantee its early sales. Here, anyway.

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- Charly on Jul 04, 2011
  
  I believe that it is more than a few hundred quid in congestion charge if you drive every workday into London
  
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- Th009 on Jul 04, 2011
  
  @charly £9 per day, paid in advance, or about £2000 per year. But there is a lot cheaper alternative for avoiding the charge: simply buy a car that emits less than 99 g of CO2 per 100 km. Qualifying models includetwo hybrids (both Toyotas), seven gasoline/petrol models (Fiat 500, Hyundai i10, three Smarts, two Toyotas) and a total of 20 diesel cars (including Audi A3, Fiesta and Focus Econetic, two Minis, two Smarts, three Volvos, and the Polo and Golf Bluemotions). Full list here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/cc-gvd-look-up-table.pdf However, most of these cars are quite small, although some (for example, Focus and Golf) are similar size to the Ampera.
  
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- Sinistermisterman on Jul 05, 2011
  
  @charly Or just register your car with Transport for London as a minicab. You'll pay a small fee to set yourself up as one, but then you never pay the congestion charge again. All you have to do is keep some 'receipts' of paying customers if ever you get challenged...
  
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Herb on Jul 04, 2011

"Vergesst es!", oder? (That will end my proofreading day.)

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Canuck129 on Jul 04, 2011

I think of Alice Cooper when I see that car....

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- SCE to AUX on Jul 04, 2011
  
  Yes. It looked like a sad clown face to me.
  
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Ryoku75 on Jul 05, 2011

I always thought the Cruize was a somewhat ugly Prius copy, but this takes the cake! Somewhere out there a Stormtroopers looking for his helmet.

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