As General Motors restructures its continuously-loss-making Opel-Vauxhall division in Europe, some silver lining is to be had with the Ampera electric vehicle, which was Europe’s best-selling passenger electric car according to sales figures from May 2012. The Ampera earned a European segment share of over 20 percent, higher than any of its rivals.
For instance, the Ampera accounted for more than 77 percent of the passenger EV market share in the Netherlands in May, a feat that left all other competitors with a single percentage point. What’s more, average year-to-date market share for the the Ampera was more than 50 percent in the Netherlands. And in Switzerland, Ampera has 44 percent segment share.
You, however, may be more interested in knowing how the Ampera is selling in Germany — arguably Europe’s toughest automotive market. Luckily, the extended-range EV is also the best-selling electric car in Deutscheland, earning more than 33 percent segment share.
Those segment share results results from very low sales volume, but such is the nature of the EV market today. Either way, do you expect anything less from a vehicle as excellent as the Ampera/Volt, which has won more than 50 national and international prizes including the “Car of the Year 2012” award, the “World Green Car of the Year 2011”, and the coveted maximum 5-star Euro NCAP award?
Comments
With the way things are going for the Volt, and the way that the North American Truck of the Year award is these days, I wager it’ll win Truck of the Year when Voltec 2.0 débuts
Actually now that I joke about that, it would be interesting to see a small unibody (S10 size) with Voltec
PSA has said they don’t want to share their diesel-hybrid tech, but it would be cool to have a compact pickup with Voltec 2.0 and the same diesel from the Cruze (160hp, 265lb-ft). Or hell, just a pickup with that oil burner alone *ahem 2014 Colorado*
Compact truck right here: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2009/08/Bare_Necessity_Truck.jpg
i’m not surprised. with those awesome looks and the cutting edge tech + fuel efficiency, i’d be surprised if it was anything but the most popular EV in Europe.
now whats up with the Volt!? don’t get me wrong, it has everything in looks over the Prius; but why didn’t they take it to the “future” like the Ampera? sometimes i wonder about the US auto makers and their unwillingness to just OWN a segment design wise. it’s not like they can’t do it. most of the best looking show cars are US designed ones. (especially GM in the late 80-90s)
people will buy a really good looking car no matter what it’s intended purpose is. to me, the Volt comes off more as a economy car brought back from the future, to the Ampera’s “THE” car of the future.
Well, to say that the Ampera is significantly different in design compared to the volt is going a bit to far, I think the ampera looks better too, but other than the fiascas, there essentially the same car, its like saying the Sierra is designed much better than the Silverado.
actually it IS significantly different in the details. the Ampera’s designers went all the way with the hybrid as hi-tech for high tech’s sake look vs the Volt which thanks to the corporate Chevy grill and conservative detail treatment, comes off as a car design to save gas that just happens to be a hybrid, ala the Prius.
i like the Volt, but i like the Volt because i understand what a big deal it is. in person and when seeing them on the road though, i’m not really compelled to want one. and clearly the sales stats say it has the same affect on everyone else as well.
the Amerpa on the other hand is like Kim Kardashian to the Volt’s Khloe Kardashian. one gets you thinking about how nice it would be to take it for a drive, where as the other is just another car.
Is the Volt grille a corporate grille, really? It looks very “EV” and doesn’t follow the same style as the rest of the Chevy fleet, which is easy to say since the rest of the fleet needs and open grille to feed the rad and engine bay air. Yes it has the distinctive split bar and bowtie, but the same can be said about the Ampera compare to the Opel grille, the Opel logo positioned on the thick bar with smaller strip below. I’d actually say the Ampera grille looks more like the rest of Opel’s than the Volt does Chevy.
The Ampera has a more agressive and sporty design because that’s what Europe is used to (insert Astra GTC, Focus ST(350), Alfa 4C, Citroen DS, etc, etc) where as North American buyers looking at eco friendly cars are self-righteous ass hats whose pompous behaviour is sickening.
Prime example to feed the stereotype, watch this video:
Forgot to add, those smug people driving the Prii and Volts, while they may be pure bread liberalites who’s opinion is correct whether facts dictate so or not, enjoy boring, bland, beige, vehicles (insert The Decline and Fall of the Toyota Empire)
You’re a fool if your think cars are engineered solely to fit certain sterotypical poltical molds of an individual.
Well that’s the thing with stereotypes isn’t it.. I don’t have a problem with EV or hybrid vehicles, but the truth is, you’re going to find a lot more smug, self proclaimed “elitists” in them. Just like there a better chance a person in the south with a truck is a pure bread american republican.
There is a huge number of demographics which are considered in vehicle design.
The vast majority of people buying cars in this segment, not just hybrid, but the compact-midsize market in general, have historical been in favour of boring design. This has recently started to change, but it’s only changing because manufacturers are ‘telling’ the consumer it’s a good thing. So many people can’t decide for themselves what they like and need to be told.
The Volt is boring in comparison to the Ampera but edgy when lined up next to the Prius or Insight. Volt designers played it safe, they didn’t want a design that was either love it or hate it (which is what Cadillac did with the 2003 CTS, well the Art and Science design language as a whole). They nestled the Volt right in the middle.
Back to those political molds, manufacturers know what type of people are the ones who typical buy a certain car. read this article in the NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/automobiles/01red.html
That doesn’t necessarily mean engineers are designing an aspect of a car one way and another aspect of a different car another. But when you know that Liberals are typically the ones who buy electric vehicles, a smart company would design according to other vehicles liberals tend to purchase. In this case, bland Asian import.
you and i are on the same page… North American cars/ market is dominated by conservatively styled cars. GM played it safe with the Volt and i think that has alot to do with it not making the impact it should have made. especially considering all the hype from GM before hand.
p.s. i have yet to hear anyone say that they prefer the Volt to the Ampera when the subject comes up on this Blog or other websites.
we know the Volt is a good car. but it doesn’t have that emotional impact that a car of it’s caliber needs to dominate the segment. i mean seriously, the car can barely deal with the Prius! and NOBODY thinks the Prius looks good!
(GM NA also gets a fail for letting the media do everything but scuttle the Volt, marketing wise)
the Ampera has that extra visual oomph to do well no matter what the drive train is. just look at it. it’s dominating the EV market in Europe. the Prius had that locked up till now.
Let’s not get confused, the Prius still has the market share. The Prius is a hyrbid. Without fully confirming, it is my understanding that the Volt/Ampera is a sales lead for the plug-in/ EV market. So yes the Prius plug-in is included in that, as is the Leaf, the Mitsu i MiEV, Peugeot iON and Citroen C-Zer (which are just rebranded i Miev), G-wiz, etc… lets not forget Geoff, the TopGear electric car lol).
This is an instance where I wish I could see where GMA got their sales figures from. With any news or research I like the whole story, not just blips of context to persuade or manipulate the big picture. News shouldn’t be an opinion or have bias, but that’s the way it works now. (I feel like I’m reiterating the theme for HBO’s The Newsroom).
As with anything, I think it is important to cite sources, even if they are just boring sales figures.
I got what I think is the same story GMA used, and here is a quote to confirm my hunch/ assumption:
“With the exception of the anomaly in the Netherlands, Opel/Vauxhall did not compare to hybrid or commercial electric vehicles.”
So yea, Prius is still king of the hybrids in Europe, just not with the plug-in and full EV crowd. No big story, I think the same can be said about the Prius plug-in in North America.
Link to where I found the quote http://gm-volt.com/2012/06/28/opel-ampera-dominates-european-ev-sales-in-may/
Good catch Andrew. It appears you are right. Infact I didn’t pay attention to the “EV” portion of the title either.
That said the Ampera is still the cuter sister.
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