Opel Ampera
The Opel/Vauxhall Ampera was a Plug-in Hybrid gasoline/electric hatchback, it was basically a Chevrolet Volt with a few design changes. It was made in Detroit together with its twin model. The Ampera hasn’t been very successful in Europe, where it’s been consistently outsold by the all-electric Nissan Leaf. In 2017, Opel launched the Ampera-e, which is an all-electric hatchback/MPV, also made by Chevrolet.
One of its biggest market was The Netherlands, where government subsidies helped the model sell 4.914 units in 2012 and 2013. That’s 58% of all European sales of the model in those two years. With toughened emission standards for Dutch subsidies in 2014 and increased competition from a similarly priced but larger Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, sales in The Netherlands have plummeted to just 9 units in the first half of 2015, with total European sales down to less than 400 units.
General Motors decided not to replace the Ampera by the end of its life cycle late 2015, as opposed to the Chevrolet Volt of which a second generation was launched in the North American market. This model could easily have been rebadged as an Opel and Vauxhall and sold in Europe as well, but GM prefered to launch the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt EV as the Opel Amera-e in Europe instead, launching it in the first half of 2017.
