Opel Ampera Electric Vehicle Heading for Geneva in March

An excellent technology, especially for driving in urban areas. However, these kind of EVs are nothing else but an improved hybryd tehchnology. A good step ahead, but they should not be called EVs as long as an internal combustion engine is still under the hood and it "fuels" the electric engine most of the time (especially for long distance travels). How are we going to call then a genuine electric vehicle, running only on batteries?

HD EV probably :P btw. this looks great, I like it much more than the volt. Bring it on!

@Michael: the difference between hybrid and EV (with "range extender") is the powertrain. In a hybrid vehicle, the internal combustion engine is mated to the transmission and linked to the wheels. In an (ER)EV, the internal combustion engine is only powering the generator, the wheels are driven by the elctric motor.

True, but as the point of such vehicles is to reduce emissions, it seems no different. That the drive is going to generate electricity rather than direct forward motion is neither here nor there when you are measuring enviromental impact (factoring in pollutants from the power station that may also have been used too).

I know the difference. My point was about their name: EVs. While the powertrain is electric, the vehicle is not 100% electric as long as sometimes most part of the electricity is produced by an internal combustion engine and not only by batteries.

I dont see how electic cars are better for the enviroment? Power is made by burning cole. Isnt that just as bad for the enviroment as a normal petrol car. Plus electric cars usually arent more enviro frendly, a prius makes more enviro damage than a LR D3! that is becuase the batteriers for the prius need to be shipped around the world on big ships. And the LD's engine isnt shipped all over the world

Ok, pure electric vehicles with batteries will never be a common case. When you run out of juice, you're not going anywhere for few hours. You need to be able to refill the car. That is what we all are used to. Thats why the generator. It does not power the car. It produces "fuel". Next step will by hydrogen powerplants, but hydrgen stations are too uncommon these days, and gasoline you can find almost behind every corner.

It is EV. Just a bit more practical. I'd love to see them on the streets.

what happens when you run out of gas? similar problem, I see nothing that a gas powered ev has over a full size electric car with larger capacity batteries.

A Volt with an Opel badge, how exciting...*yawn*

We had it coming.

You can ask yourself off why its taking so much time to release a car thats powered by a electric engine, I find its very brave and a sign of future engagement of opel. My opinion is that there should be an immediate ban of engines that are solely powerd by fuel.

"what happens when you run out of gas?" you pull into a filling station and fill up in about 1 or 2 minutes. without a fueled "re-generator", you need to re-charge for 2+ hours (partial charges KILL batteries, as everyone knows)

that was kryst's point: a fueled back-up fills in for situations where all-electric would be deficient, and when those situations don't occur (daily commuting where you're plugging in at both ends), you ARE functioning as all-electric, since you never touch the gas.

(question: why are they still making gas-fueled hybrids? i would think in a car like this, a diesel generator wouldn't even need an expensive turbo since it's not connected to the wheels directly...)

For those who think electric cars are just as polluting as any normal car - think again. The electric car in Europe, uses non-carbon nuclear/wind/hydro for a good portion of it's fuel. Even when you factor the current carbon-powered powerplants in the UK, you will get 62 g/km which is lower than any of the most efficient petrol/diesel engines by nearly half. Can you make petrol at home to run your car? Well, you can make electricity via solar panels/wind turbines at home and charge your car truly zero emission and carbon-free. Another thing to factor is that it moves the pollution from the inner city, which improves air quality in cities. More importantly, it is much easier to improve the efficiency of a dozen or so power stations then improve the efficiency of the millions of cars on the road today. Think also about how much motor oil is wasted by cars as refuse. It costs the environment as electric cars do not use motor oil. Do you want a world that goes to war for oil to power our cars? As for manufacturing costs (shipping batteries) - give me a break. Do you honestly think the car you bought was produced 100% from domestic parts?