Opel Ampera - Europe's Chevy Volt - Is on Track for 2011 Production, GM Exec Says
By Scott Doggett December 3, 2009
A day after GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz gave a speech at the Los Angeles Auto Show in which he said, "GM is moving from a company that, for 100 years, has been based on mechanically driven automobiles, to one that will eventually be focused on electrically driven vehicles," GM's director for European electric vehicle implementation said that the development schedule for its Opel/Vauxhall Ampera extended-range electric vehicle is on track.
"Everything has gone according to plan," said Gherardo Corsini, according to a report today by the online subscription service Just-Auto.com.
Production of the Opel Ampera for left-hand-drive European markets is slated to start in late 2011. Right-hand drive Vauxhall-badged versions for the British market are due to start production at the beginning of 2012.
"We are on course for the final testing and validation of prototypes to take place in 2010," Corsini said.
Opel engineers have installed the Ampera's Voltec electric propulsion system - including the battery, motor, engine and electric-generator - inside the body of an existing production car (a Chevrolet Cruze).
Specifically, engineers are testing the system's performance and the overall driving impression. In addition, engineers have developed and are further testing the vehicle's lithium-ion battery.
The Ampera is being developed in three distinct phases. The first stage involves the engineering development vehicles, which are used to analyze the behavour of specific subsystems and get them to work together. These are not complete vehicle tests but work to prove individual subsystems.
In the next phase, integration cars are built with all of the systems coming together. They contain a lot of hand-built parts, but are "design intent."
In the final development stage, the cars will look and operate nearly identical to the production cars. This phase brings everything together. All the final aerodynamic and wind tunnel work can be done with them. They are the last phase before production.
If all this sounds familiar to you, it's likely because it is same process that the Volt just completed.
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