Norway Gets Its First 10 Opel Ampera-e Electric Cars
Norway recently took delivery of its first Opel Ampera-e EVs, with 10 units making it to Jessheim (a city a bit north of Oslo).
The news follows (after a month or so) a tweet from Karl-Thomas Neumann revealing that the first Opel Ampera-e deliveries in Norway would begin by/in May, so that announcement was seemingly correct (or a bit cautious/pessimistic).
I am happy to confirm that we will start delivering the #AMPERAe to customers in Norway in May already. #GIMS2017 #GimsSwiss pic.twitter.com/9RX7xMGlRL
— Karl-Thomas Neumann (@KT_Neumann) March 8, 2017
Interestingly, all of the 10 Opel Ampera-e EVs (rebranded Chevy Bolt EVs) now registered in Jessheim are blue — curious.
Push EVs provides more: “Now that Opel/Vauxhall is joining the PSA Group, there is an uncertainty on how many Opel Ampera-e units will GM produce for Europe. Nevertheless, it’s obvious that this electric car is much better suited for European tastes, than it is for North Americans. With low sales figures for the Chevrolet Bolt EV in the USA, it’s clear that Chevrolet prefers to sell the plug-in hybrid Volt, which is available nationwide in that country.” GM’s preference here is still a debatable matter — the Volt was also production limited after it was introduced. Perhaps Pedro is indeed correct, but we don’t know for sure one way or the other.
Going on: “While very different electric cars, both Chevrolet Bolt EV/Opel Ampera-e and the Hyundai IONIQ Electric share the same problem. They are production constrained and their makers don’t realize the gems they have in their hands. In both cases, GM and Hyundai prefer to sell hybrids as their eco-friendly cars. Maybe the arrival of the Tesla Model 3 and the new generation Nissan Leaf later this year is what GM and Hyundai need to wake up and increase production.”
I’m more of the mind that GM is aware that the Chevy Bolt EV would sell well if it was pushed hard, and simply doesn’t want to sell too many of them (for whatever reasons). That’s just my guess, though — maybe I’m wrong.
Regarding the low sales in the US, by the way, see:
74% Increase In Electric Car Sales In US — March & Q1 2017 Electric Car Sales Report
Why Do High-End Tesla Model S & X Dominate US Electric Car
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