General Motors says it will pump out 10,000 Opel and Vauxhall Amperas for sale in Europe in 2012. The breakdown, according to GM Europe president Nick Reilly, will go something like this: Opel gets 6,000 Amperas from GM’s allotment of 60,000 for 2012 and Vauxhall receives 4,000 of the plug-in hybrids to sell in the UK. What this means is that approximately 50,000 Chevrolet Volts will be built in 2012, of which 2,000 will be sold over in the UK, leaving the United States with 48,000 Volts to go around in 2012.
Nick Reilly says most of the Amperas will be sold to fleets and local government agencies. The Volt, he says, will be targeted at retail customers in Europe. GM says it will launch the €42,900 ($63,038 U.S. at the current exchange rate) Opel Ampera in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2011 and will wheel out both the £28,545 ($46,614 U.S.) Volt and the £33,995 ($55,514 U.S) Vauxhall Ampera in the UK in spring of 2012.
[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]
