Ailing carmaker Opel is considering launching an electric car for inner-city use to tap what it sees as a high-potential market, the firm’s boss said in an interview on Sunday.
“We are thinking about a small electric vehicle,” Nick Reilly, chief of the General Motors unit, told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaperaper.
“There is strong potential for growth in cities across the world,” he said, adding that “various governments are going to provide fiscal support for this kind of vehicle.”
An Opel spokesman said the new model was expected to be launched in three years, in both electric and conventional fuel versions.
Hit by falling sales, Opel last month unveiled a sweeping restructuring plan along with an appeal for countries that host Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall to stump up 2.7 billion euros (US$3.68 billion) in state aid.
By 2014 Opel has said it would invest 11 billion euros in new models and environmentally friendly technology such as electric power trains.
Its first electric-only car, the Ampera, is scheduled for delivery next year. Its wheels are powered exclusively by an electric engine, with a small fuel engine integrated to recharge its batteries.
EU industry ministers pressed the European Commission last month to devise a common strategy to develop electric cars, seen as both an environmental necessity and an opportunity for growth.
Current EU president Spain wants the electric car to feature in the EU’s 2020 strategy, an economic reform project aimed at ensuring prosperity and sustainable growth for Europe.
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