According to reports, something’s brewing in General Motor Corp’s assembly line. Apparently, the first batch of preproduction 2012 Opel Ampera has just been built. The coming months are looking at more pre-production Amperas rolling off the assembly line of GM’s Warren, Michigan plant.
Before you get too excited, though, hold off that trip to the dealer. Note that these are pre-production models, and they will not be sold to the public just yet. They still need to undergo a lot of testing so that the car manufacturer can finalize the software development stage of the vehicles. Producers will also be busy making final adjustments to the Ampera’s controls. These final tweaks are necessary to make this baby road-safe and optimized by 2012.
When interviewed, Andrew Farah, Ampera’s Vehicle Chief Engineer, said that GM is “right on target”. This car should be ready for the European market by late next year. Although he did say that there are still a lot of work left to be done on the vehicle, the pre-production line is already a significant accomplishment for all the teams who have been pouring their efforts on the car.
It was officially stated too that the Ampera will be available as a Vauxhall. GM will dress it up in the same Voltec platform as the 2011 Chevy Volt. The vehicle should be able to run on 150 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque with a lithium-ion battery pack and a 1.4 liter gasoline engine. The European market is looking forward to seeing this plug-in hybrid vehicle at the last quarter of 2011.