Opel Ampera Spied Completely Uncovered

That shape is actually German, it's a design study that results in very low drag and its proven to be extremely aerodynamic. Honda CRX, Toyota Prius and the Volt all use that.

The front end in particular looks very much like the civic - lights et al - but even more so on the Volt. This car's rear end looks better than the volt, better put together at least. Sadly, that strange wing mirror design hasn't been dropped for the Ampera. The Y-spoke alloys remind me of the larger ones you get on a BMW X5, or even on the Mondeo, big trend those are. I guess we're going to have to get used to this wedge-shaped profile for our future sedans - aerodynamic fuel-efficiency and maximum space being priorities.

do Germans have anything to say about the X5 and Smart design rip off by chinese car producers? do the Italians have anything to say about the Fiat Panda being copied in smallest details by the same chinese producers? and how about the similarities between Insight and Prius? who copied from whom? and as "wickedated" said, the wind tunnel tests lead to this design if you want a streamlined car especially if it's an electric car. And BTW: the Y shaped alloys are used for years by Opel in their production lines and are not something copied from others. Look at the Astra, Vectra, Signum, a.s.o. And I like this design as I like the general direction in which Opel is heading in (well... being an Opel Astra GTC owner and with a few years of work experience in an Opel dealership, maybe I'm a little bit subjective but that's it)

Almost better? That definitely looks much better than the Volt. As always, European cars are styled to meet the higher expectations Europeans have (and better tastes). Not bad, I must say.

i agree bmwer, Europeans have high expectation in everything. Being a Europeaner living in AU i find that my expectations of cars and general stuff is higher than aussies. I also agree that we have good taste and design

Wow. I think you might want to re-compare these photos with the Volt. There just aren't really dramatic differences here. Get real.