Recent news has claimed the European version of the Chevy Volt, the Opel/Vauhall Ampera, is being canceled due to poor sales. As I’ve noted before, the Chevy Volt isn’t selling too well in the U.S. itself, and I imagine the European version isn’t doing very well against the Leaf. The Leaf is a fair bit cheaper than the Volt in the U.S., has a cleaner story, and seats five people. While the Volt is pragmatically the best plug-in hybrid on the market – the BMW i3 REx is up-and-coming in that category – it’s price is pretty durn high.
The chorus of people who want to slander the Obama Administration with the Volt are apparently using the Ampera’s cancelation as a symptom of Another Obama Failure. Hurmph. I think the lackluster Volt/Ampera sales is more due to GM’s failure to understand how to market the thing.
In any case, GM has shown a repeated determination to keep working on the Volt concept, rather than canceling it as the naysayers have demanded, GM is moving forward with a second generation of the vehicle.
And, it turns out the Ampera isn’t actually being canceled. It wouldn’t be anything new for those right winger Obama naysayers to be lying, and this is yet another case.
According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, the Ampera is going on hiatus while it is being redesigned
. A hiatus is not the same as a cancellation, right?
As a Doctor Who fan, I certainly understand the difference. The dark years between Sylvester McCoy and Peter Eccleston turned out to be a hiatus, not a cancellation. If only we’d known that, it wouldn’t have been so painful at the time.
Reuters quotes an Opel/Vauhall spokesperson saying “We will definitely introduce a successor product in the electric vehicle segment and continue to defend our position as an innovation leader. We see electric mobility as an important part of mobility and we will continue to drive down costs and deliver affordability.”
As for “when” – look for the Ampera v2.0 sometime between 2014 and 2018. There’s a next generation Volt due in a couple years as well.
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- Tesla Motors magic pill to solve range anxiety doesn’t quite instill range confidence - March 19, 2015
- Update on Galena IL oil train – 21 cars involved, which were the supposedly safer CP1232 design - March 7, 2015
- Another oil bomb train – why are they shipping crude oil by train? – Symptoms of fossil fuel addiction - March 6, 2015
- Chevron relinquishes fracking in Romania, as part of broader pull-out from Eastern European fracking operations - February 22, 2015
- Answer anti- electric car articles with truth and pride – truth outshines all distortions - February 19, 2015
- Apple taking big risk on developing a car? Please, Apple, don’t go there! - February 16, 2015
- Toyota, Nissan, Honda working on Japanese fuel cell infrastructure for Japanese government - February 12, 2015
