In its advertisements for the fully electric Opel Ampera-e, Opel Nederland can no longer claim that the vehicle can travel from Amsterdam to Maastricht and back again thanks to a “carefree action radius”. That is what the Advertising Code Committee (RCC) has decided.
A resident of Lelystad had gone to the RCC in December after disappointing about the driving range in the practice of his Opel, for which he had concluded a purchase agreement last December. During the oral hearing of the case, the driver referred to the video report of NU.nl, in which the test was made: a trip on one battery charge from Amsterdam to Maastricht and back. The latter proved impossible. The reaction of Opel Nederland to the item was that the claim is based on the action radius of the model in question, determined by WLTP, being 423 kilometers.
Winter
“The range in question may deviate from this official, practice-oriented number, and varies depending on, among other things, temperature, use of electrically controlled functions such as climate control, driver’s driving behavior and regeneration of energy while driving. Therefore, in winter conditions the range is often lower than the officially stated range. Incidentally, this range can also be higher under favorable conditions, “says Opel.
Insufficiently clear
According to the RCC, Opel’s advertisements do not make it sufficiently clear that the driving range used for advertising is realized under standardized conditions. The brand may therefore no longer advertise in this way. Opel Nederland has until March 5 to appeal the decision. Whether Opel is going to advertise the model at all is still questionable. The brand stops the Ampera-e, which is therefore only available from stock.