The greenest Manta
When we talk about a green Opel Manta, many people still remember the bright green copy from New Kids. However, Opel itself is also working on a ‘green’ Manta, which you can also see as a kind of Insignia successor.
Highlights
- Based on Experimental concept
- Coming in 2025
- Indirect Insignia successor
The Opel Manta returns! No, not in the form of that one nice ‘restomod’ that Opel showed in 2021. That was a Manta A, which, in addition to being an electric treat, also served to show where Opel got its inspiration for the ‘Vizor front’. This combination of headlights and grille has since been found on all new models of the brand, which therefore look a lot more confident than the Opels of that time. Opel will soon take the next step with the completely new production Manta. The car you see here is the result of a combination of several clues. First of all, it is the fact that Opel announced in 2021 that the Manta would return. That promise was then accompanied by an image of a high, crossover-like car with a sharply sloping roofline and a large liftback tailgate. The second indication is the rumor from 2022 that states that Opel and DS will both produce a new electric top model in Italy. The third, most obvious hint is the Opel Experimental concept car, which shone during the last IAA in Munich. Although the car formally serves as a design study, its shape and size fit seamlessly with the first two clues.
Vizor 2.0
Our artist had it quite easy and simply made a production-ready interpretation of the Experimental. This means that there is a large, slightly crossover-like car, but certainly not a traditional SUV. The shape can be compared to that of the Citroën C5-X, although the Opel is sharper and more tightly drawn. Consciously, of course: Opel believes in a design philosophy that it calls ‘detox’: detoxifying. Free from unnecessary frills and above all nice and tidy and quiet, but still impressive, because this will be a large Opel. A spiritual successor to the Insignia, but with the high-rise appearance that the market seems to be begging for these days. The Opel Vizor front is returning, but in a new form. Opel also sees the Experimental as a preview of the next design evolution and complements this at the front with what it calls a ‘4D Vizor’, a completely transparent unit containing both the brand logo and the lighting. What remains of this at the production stage remains to be seen.
Opel Manta (Illustration: Larson)
Opel Manta becomes purely electric
It seems clear that the Opel Manta will be fully electric. Opel itself already called the car ‘Opel Manta-e’ in 2021. Existing electric Opels have now exchanged the ‘-e’ for the addition ‘Electric’, so we are now putting our money on the name ‘Opel Manta Electric’. Opel wants to supply purely electric cars in Europe from 2028 and this must be the flagship. The Manta Electric rests on the STLA Medium platform that is used, among others, for the new Peugeot e-3008. The largest 98 kWh battery pack in that car already provides a driving range of about 700 kilometers, so the possibly lower and sleeker Opel will undoubtedly achieve impressive performance in this area. It is particularly interesting to what extent Opel is able to exploit the advantages of a pure EV with this platform, which is also used for cars with combustion engines, including in the 3008. While the new Peugeot, like its future Opel Grandland brother, is more of a traditional SUV, we hope for the Manta to be a car that surprises with a long wheelbase and a particularly spacious and homely interior. We soon learn whether that will indeed be the approach: the electric Opel Manta should appear sometime around the middle of this decade.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl