The head of Opel, Florian Huettl, confirmed in an interview with the German newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine, the plans for its future electric cars, where there will be room for more economical proposals, as well as the recovery of a mythical name, the Opel Manta, will be a proposal electrical.
The subsidiary of the Stellantis Group has among its plans to have an electric variant of each of its models starting next year, and from 2025, all new Opel launches will be 100% electric cars.
A transformation has already begun, and according to the manager, in some markets and models, the brand already sells more electric vehicles than variants with a combustion engine. Furthermore, two out of every three customers who choose an electric Opel are new customers of the brand. Something that tells us that the electric car has become a magnet for new customers.
One of the points that Mr. Huettl has discussed is the issue of shared platforms. Architectures that are used for both combustion engine and electric cars and which for the manager represents a loss of competitiveness by incurring higher production costs compared to dedicated platforms.
The new Stellantis Group platforms focus on purely electric systems. To lower costs, the company is also working on cheaper batteries, and in addition to adopting LFP cells, from 2025, Stellantis will produce its batteries in a joint venture in a new “Gigafactory” in Kaiserslautern.
When asked about the prospects for a particularly affordable electric car, Huettl replied: “ We will be able to offer electric cars for around 25,000 euros. With the next generation of our platforms. We are working hard on it. One thing is certain: electric cars are getting cheaper .”
A considerable challenge if we take into account is that currently, the most affordable Opel electric car is the Corsa-E, which starts at 34,650 euros.
The Opel Manta will be resurrected
Opel wants to revive the Manta, and it also wants to do so with an exclusively electric propulsion system and to become an emblematic and passionate model.
For now, the Opel manager has not wanted to expand further and has not indicated technical details, limiting himself to saying: “ We will manufacture a new electric Manta. But it will not be a retro product, that is, not an electric Manta similar to the old Manta A or B. We are inspired by what defined the blanket back then, but also by what is interesting about its appearance today. ”
A design that could have been advanced with the presentation a few weeks ago of the Opel Experimental, which curiously could use the name Manta, but in a model that will replace the Grandland, which means it will be an SUV.
An Experimental that has a “coupé” type profile, with a fastback-type roof drop, where all the chrome on the body has been eliminated and the mirrors have been replaced with 180º cameras that are integrated into the C-pillar, which gives the vehicle a more techie and avant-garde appearance.
Speculating on the technical issue, the Manta should share development with the new Peugeot 3008, since both will be based on the STLA Medium modular platform of the Stellantis group. Therefore, it will be available with a propulsion system of up to 388 HP, and two batteries, 60 and 86 kWh capacity, being able to offer a maximum range of approximately 600 km WLTP.
The other big question is when. Something that Opel has not indicated either, which leads us to think that at least until 2025-2026 we will not see the new Opel Manta on the roads.
