Opel readies electric version of new Karl

Electric Opels still to come, even as Ampera is finally killed off

Battery version of the Karl should be on sale by 2018
Battery version of the Karl should be on sale by 2018

Before the first petrol-engined versions have even been released to the public, Opel is prepping an electric version of the new Karl city car, which should have a range of around 150km on a single charge.

According to Germany’s Auto Bild, the e-Karl should go on sale by 2018, and will feature significantly changed front styling to distinguish it from its petrol brethren.

The report comes at a time when Opel is seriously re-evaluating its approach to electric cars.

Although it promised last July to create a successor to the Ampera plug-in range extender, the recent launch of the new Chevrolet Volt (from which the Ampera borrows its hardware) came and went without a single mention of a European version. That's hardly surprising, as Ampera sales in Europe have been little short of disastrous – fewer than 1,000 were sold in 2014.

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Opel has consistently promised that it has future electric car plans though, and CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said last year that "after the eventual run-out of the current generation Ampera, we'll introduce a successor model in the electric vehicle segment. We see e-mobility as an important part of the mobility of tomorrow."

That suggests that Opel may be working on a simpler plug-in hybrid version of the Astra or Insignia, which would be cheaper to produce than the more complex Ampera and would undercut that car's disastrously high price tag.

Neil Briscoe

Neil Briscoe

Neil Briscoe, a contributor to The Irish Times, specialises in motoring