Currently reading: First Vauxhall EV under development for British market
Opel Ampera-e won't come to the UK, but parent company GM is already developing a future EV for right-hand-drive markets

GM won’t be producing a right-hand drive version of the Opel Ampera-e, but it has confirmed that a right-hand-drive electric car is under development for the future.

The official line regarding the Ampera-e is that the numbers just didn’t stack up.

“When the Chevrolet Bolt [which the Ampera-e is based on] was developed years ago, I think the whole electro-mobility market at the time was very tiny and niche,” Tina Muller, Opel’s marketing boss, told us at the Paris motor show. “The first focus was on the majority of the markets and the US and most of Europe are obviously left-hand [drive].”

The good news for anybody looking to combine a Vauxhall badge with electro-fuelled propulsion is that the company has already reconsidered its decision to exclude Britain, with Muller confirming that a right-hand drive electric model is under development.

“Now we realise that electro-mobility will become bigger and bigger and that’s why we need to do a second step, one that will include right-hand drive,” she said, “I can’t tell you exactly when it will hit the market, but for sure it’s part of our plans.”

She refused to confirm whether this will be a RHD version of the Ampera-E or a separate EV model, but regardless, it looks like the UK is going to have to wait for it.

Mike Duff

Mike Duff
Title: Contributing editor

Mike has been writing about cars for more than 25 years, having defected from radio journalism to follow his passion. He has been a contributor to Autocar since 2004, and is a former editor of the Autocar website. 

Mike joined Autocar full-time in 2007, first as features editor before taking the reins at autocar.co.uk. Being in charge of the video strategy at the time saw him create our long running “will it drift?” series. For which he apologies.

He specialises in adventurous drive stories, many in unlikely places. He once drove to Serbia to visit the Zastava factory, took a £1500 Mercedes W124 E-Class to Berlin to meet some of its taxi siblings and did Scotland’s North Coast 500 in a Porsche Boxster during a winter storm. He also seems to be a hypercar magnet, having driven such exotics as the Koenigsegg One:1, Lamborghini SCV12, Lotus Evija and Pagani Huayra R.

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