Opel Sets Aggressive Hybrid Goals

GM Europe Head, Nick Reilly told Reuters he would be pushing to refresh the Opel line-up with hybrids over the next five years.

"We will have hybrid engines in our programme, in the next five years, Reilly said. Its first electric car with range-extending technology -- the Ampera -- will hit the market at the end of 2011.

"We expect (to sell) 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles a year at the start. Later it could quickly become substantially more," he said

The E-REV coming before the hybrid is a new approach, but makes sense with the limited hybrid production available in Europe. It may make complete sense to skip over the interim hybrid technology and go straight to the plug-in hybrid.

Although, Toyota may end up having a big advantage there since they have so much experience already with working on two engine types in the same vehicle. The plug-in Prius may be coming after the Volt (and Ampera), but I'm expecting it to be more finished than the Volt will be right from the beginning.

The new Opel head is also talking about an all-electric vehicle in under three years.