Opel has displayed early versions of its Ampera hybrid vehicle at other auto shows, but this time, for the Geneva show, a top executive at General Motors’ Opel/Vauxhall unit drove it from Germany.
The message of the 348-mile road trip by the executive, Gherardo Corsini, who heads the electric vehicle project, was straightforward _ the car works.
“Getting lots of curious looks at the rest area,” one of Mr. Corsini’s passengers, Dietmar Thate, manager of social media for Opel, said via Twitter after the car made a short stop on Sunday.
The hybrid car is meant to run on batteries for about 60 km before a gasoline-powered generator kicks in for longer trips.
One of the big themes of the Geneva International Motor Show, which opens to the news media on Tuesday and to the public on Thursday through March 14, is that electric-powered vehicles are moving inexorably from prototypes to actual production — whether or not the buying public is ready.
“The time is past when companies only displayed studies,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Centre for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Duisburg, Germany. “Now the industry is moving toward hard facts.”
Governments around the world, eager to do something about global warming, have been pushing automakers in that direction.
But the shift toward electric vehicles also represents a huge leap of faith for the automakers, especially as they emerge from a devastating downturn. To be able to produce electric cars in a few years, they must invest billions now without knowing how large the market will be.
In addition, there is no consensus on what kind of technology will prevail. The possibilities include pure battery power, some combination of batteries and internal combustion engines and more exotic solutions like hydrogen fuel cells.
“Right now, car companies don’t quite know what technology to bet on,” said Peter Wells, co-director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff University in Wales. “It’s probably not safe to bet on just one.”
Opel, which is trying to regain market share in Europe from Volkswagen and Ford, is scheduled to start commercial production of the Ampera — a cousin of the Chevrolet Volt — near the end of next year. BMW said last week that it would produce an electric vehicle made partly with lightweight carbon fibre at its existing plant in Leipzig, with market introduction no later than 2015.
Toyota, still struggling to repair a reputation battered by reports of sudden acceleration and other problems in its vehicles, is scheduled to show the latest prototype of its plug-in Prius hybrid in Geneva. The car will be able to travel 25 km solely on battery power and is expected to hit the market in 2011.
Some industry experts say all-electric vehicles present an opportunity to create a new market among well-heeled, environmentally conscious buyers.
“Interesting customer segments are waiting desperately in some cases for these products,” said Gregor Matthies, a partner at the consultant Bain & Co. in Munich.
In November, Daimler began producing small numbers of battery-powered versions of its two-seat Smart car in Hambach, France. The company has said it plans to produce 20,000 a year, beginning in 2012.
Mitsubishi’s MiEV, already in Japanese showrooms, is scheduled to be available in Europe later this year. Nissan plans to introduce its Leaf in the United States, Europe and Japan in December.
Even the makers of sports cars, bastions of internal combustion, are tentatively moving toward electric power. By Jack Ewing, New York Times News Service
