Opel Ampera at 2011 Geneva Auto Show

The battery is recharged in about four hours at 230V by plugging the vehicle's on-board charge system into a standard household outlet.

For the first 40 - 80 kilometres (depending on terrain, driving style, and temperature), power is supplied by the electricity stored in the 16-kWh, lithium-ion battery. While driving on electricity delivered by the battery, the Ampera moves free of gas and tailpipe-emissions. If a longer trip is required, the gasoline-fuelled engine can seamlessly extend the total driving range to more than 500 kilometres on a full tank.

The extremely quiet 111 kW/150 hp electric motor delivers 370 Newton meters torque from a standstill. It accelerates the Ampera from zero to 100 km/h in around nine seconds and enables a maximum speed of 161 km/h.

Pricing, however, is a bit unreasonable. GM has set the Ampera's base price at €42,900, which includes Europe's steep Value Added Tax, and that translates to roughly $60,000 based on current exchange rates. Still, Opel says that it already has about 1,000 orders placed for the sedan across the continent, and with Voltec engineering on tap, hopefully the Ampera will make as big of a splash in Europe as the Volt has in America.