Opel Ampera EV Police Cruiser: Volt's European Cousin Getting Ready for Patrol

If there's one way to kick-start sales of specialty vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera, that's by enlisting the government as one of your clients. And with a starting price of €42,900 (about US$58,000 at the current exchange rates) in Europe, GM's Opel division will need all the help it can get to sell the Ampera.

Well before the Ampera hits European showrooms at the end of the year, Opel is already exploring the possibility of a police package for its range-extended electric vehicle. According to the company, the Ampera could be the perfect police car for urban use.

Like the Volt, Opel's version of the car can be driven in pure electric mode for 40-80 km before the petrol engine kicks in to produce electricity and / or motivate the front driving wheels pushing the total driving range to over 500 km [311 miles]. The Ampera completes the standard sprint in 9 seconds while reaching a top speed of 160 km/h [100 mph].

The final production version of the Ampera will receive its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

Opel Ampera: European Chevy Volt Scooped Undisguised!

Carscoop's spy photographers have done it again, this time by capturing the Opel Ampera study totally undisguised at one of the firm's German centers. Due to be revealed for the first time in public at next month's Geneva Motor Show, the Ampera is nothing more, nothing less, than a Chevy Volt with a new fascia and a subtly redesigned rear-end. Opel's version of GM's extended-range electric vehicle is scheduled to go on sale in Europe during the second half of 2011, or about a year after the Volt hits Chevy's North American outlets.

The most visible styling changes on the Ampera concern the EV's front-end design which is inspired from Opel's latest concept cars like the GTC. It features a set of Civic-like headlamps with vertical air ducts, a thinner grille and a new bumper.

At the rear-end, aside from the new bumper, Opel's design team restyled the tail lamps and added a horizontal chrome bar while they also painted the lower part of the fifth door in the same color as the rest of the car -as opposed to the Volt's blacked out panel.

We don't have any pictures of the Ampera's interior, but judging from exterior, we're guessing that changes will most likely be minimal.

According to General Motors, for trips up to 60 km or around 40 miles, the Ampera will run solely on lithium-ion battery power charged through a standard 230v outlet while for longer distances, the car will continue to drive on electricity that is generated by a small internal combustion engine.

Geneva Show: Opel Ampera EV - European Sales start in 2011

The recently revealed Chevrolet Volt extended range electric hybrid will find its way into Europe as the Opel Ampera while it will also be offered with right-hand drive in the United Kingdom by Opel's sister-brand, Vauxhall. Scheduled to go on sale in Europe in the second half of 2011, the Ampera features a unique front and rear design that incorporates several styling cues from Opel's Flextreme and GTC Concept show cars. Other than that, the Ampera is virtually identical to the Volt.

The five-door Ampera can seat four passengers offering a luggage capacity of 301 litres. The car's interior features a Jet Black cabin combined with 'Spice Red' accents and Dark Argent Metallic paint on the instrument panel's centre stack.

The Ampera is equipped with an electric motor that powers the car and a conventional petrol engine that kicks in to produce electricity once the batteries are depleted. GM says that for journeys up to 60 km (approx. 40 miles), it runs on electricity stored in the 16-kWh, lithium-ion battery, and emits zero CO2. When the battery's energy is used up, electricity from the petrol engine-generator extends the Ampera's range to more than 500 km.

The electric drive unit delivers 370 Nm of instant torque, the equivalent of 150 horsepower offering the Ampera a zero to 100 km/h (62mph) acceleration time of around nine seconds, and a top speed of 161 km/h (100mph).