28/05/08

The Opel GT equipped with an electric motor

In the USA a fine-tuner has developed a conversion kit

In the USA it is called Saturn Sky (however, its platform is also used for the Pontiac Solstice). In Europe, instead, it looks like the Opel GT, a small, quite sporty, two-seat roadster equipped with a 4 cylinder 2 l turbocharged engine delivering 300 hp, which is quite remarkable.

Let’s stop for a while and consider that making up a new car is a fascinating and ambitious endeavour, though very expensive: actually design, development, type approval, sale network and after sale assistance involve high financial resources. So it is unthinkable that a carmaker can do everything on his own or use any advanced technology without taking into account how much those operations affect industrial costs. At last the result is a niche car, only affordable for very well-off people.

The Tesla Raodster is a patent example: it is a ‘special’ car but equally energy efficient. It can still be considered a toy, at least until its price can be slashed to its half (born in America, its recent exhibition at the Top Marques Monaco has virtually started the sale in Europe at the not inconsiderable price of 99,000 euros).

AMP (Advanced Mechanical Products), an Ohio-based company concerned with the production of electric car modules, has made some changes (although no official feedback on the project’s reliability and quality is available at the moment) which convert the Saturn Sky (aka Pontiac Solstice, aka Opel GT) into a totally electric car: the four-cylinder EcoTec engine has been removed and replaced by a system consisting of a li-ion battery pack, two electric motors and onboard electronic instruments.

According to the car maker the new system allows the car to kick off from 0 to 100 km in 5.7 seconds and to have a range of 150 km; it is priced 25,000 dollars (15,900 euros). The only drawback is the extra weight of the battery pack (about 360 kg), which prevents the American roadster from being lively.