Opel's version of the Chevrolet Volt will cost considerably more than the American-market model when it goes on sale before the end of 2011, it has emerged.
Opel has today announced a price of 42,900 euros for the Ampera, the version of the Volt that will be sold by the German brand and its UK partner, Vauxhall. That equates to more than $58,000, considerably more than the $41,000 base price (before state taxes) of the Volt.
That figure could result in the Vauxhall Ampera costing north of £40k, considerably more than the figure originally expected for the car.
However, a Vauxhall source insisted that the firm would "announce its own price" for the Ampera before the end of this year, an indication that British buyers may have to pay less for the model, even before the UK government's £5000 eco-vehicle grant.
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Re: Opel confirms Ampera price
Re: Opel confirms Ampera price
Given that it was an excuse to allow Obama to bail them out, it may have wasted time but it saved the company.
The Volt was approved long before the economy tanked; the Obama administration actually asked them not to build it because it will lose money in the short term
People sometimes forget the lead times on car development and I suspect the development time on this vehicle would have been longer than most. I agree with most posters that the price is insane from a value point of view. Some will buy it because they think that they are saving the planet and their wallet but when any sort economic rigour is applied to the purchase of a vehicle such as this then it will just not stand up. Now we all know (suspect or think) that these will come down in price fairly quickly. If they want to retain the customer that paid full whack they can't drop the price every month or two as that will murder the retained value of the early ones. As an example, I bought a new 50 inch plasma screen telly a couple of weeks ago to replace a 32 inch LCD bought 6 years ago. The price of the plasma $1200 US and the price of the LCD - $4500 US... The only way I can see is to start a subsidy out quite high (manufacture and government perhaps) then slowly decrease this as the manufacturing costs decrease. I can see lots of cranky owners in a couple of years when you can get a new one of these for 25k.Re: Opel confirms Ampera price
The Volt was approved long before the economy tanked; the Obama administration actually asked them not to build it because it will lose money in the short term. The Volt was more a response to Tesla, early days Lutz said something to the effect, if a small startup can build an electric car, a company the size of GM can as well.
You can question the motives for building the Volt all you want, in the end it comes down to will it work and can it ultimately be made affordable. That said, a lot of manufacturers are now on board with “range extending” vehicles. I am curious to see what everyone else charges for theirs, I’m sure the Audi A1 e-tron will be a bargain.