Opel Experimental: preview of Manta and new design

Highlights Opel Experimental

• Renewed house style for electric future
• More with less and no more chrome
• Hint at new Manta

Remember the GT X Experimental? That study model shown in 2018 was an important one for Opel. After all, the brand introduced its Opel Vizor, the Opel Compass and the Pure Panel that it has applied to its models since the introduction of the current Mokka. You know it from the Astra and facelifted versions of cars such as the Crossland, Grandland and Corsa. Opel will only sell new electric passenger cars in Europe until 2028 and it is inevitable that Opel will open a can of new EVs in the coming years. Those newcomers will look slightly different from the Opels you currently know. But there’s more than that.

This GT X Experimental introduced a new house style and gave a hint to the Mokka.

First the car itself. The Opel Experimental is not just a crazy show car full of visual nonsense and crazy details with which a car manufacturer hopes to attract attention for a short time. Of course the Experimental also has them. Think of the side mirrors that are in a very unusual place. In fact, they have been replaced by C-pillar cameras. More interesting, however, is the slightly accentuated but clearly different version of the Opel family face on this study model.

New design for electrical future

The Experimental also has the Opel Vizor where the headlights are incorporated in a kind of black panel. Central to it is the renewed and illuminated Opel logo. This time, however, the panel is transparent and all cameras, radars and other sensors of the security systems are also incorporated. The headlights are also interesting. They more or less give away what you can expect from the new light signature of future Opels. The hook-shaped LED lighting continues to evolve and the vertical part seems to be replaced by a set of more playful-looking stripes. Fun fact: you saw something of that on the Opel Rocks Extreme. The LED lighting of the headlights is part of the recurring ‘plus shape’ in the front that Opel calls the Opel Compass. In current models, the longitudinal crease in the center of the bonnet is also part of this. It is illuminated on the Experimental and visually extends over the roof deep into the buttocks.

Opel Experimental

Speaking of that buttocks: you also see the Compass more strongly there. What will remain of this on future new Opels? That remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if the brand name is now written centrally on the back. At least that’s what the Experimental hints at.

Detoxify

The Opel Experimental therefore does not introduce a completely new design language, but a sharpened version of the current Bold & Pure design philosophy. It mainly contains the word ‘detox’ central. According to Opel, it is done with cars that are overloaded with visual frills. Future Opels will be sleeker and visually do more with less. It’s even all over and out for chrome-colored accents. “Lighting is the new decoration,” Florian Theis, Opel Chief Designer Advanced Concepts, reminds us. Particularly from the side, the Experimental indeed looks quite free of busy folds or lines.

Opel Experimental

Opel also cuts away unnecessary things in the interior of the slick-lined electric crossover. So intense, in fact, that you won’t find any traditional displays in it. The Experimental uses, among other things, projection to bring as much peace as possible to the interior. Physical buttons for important functions will remain. It also seems spacious, despite its relatively limited dimensions. According to Opel, the Experimental is only marginally longer than an Astra, but offers at least as much interior space as the now defunct Opel Insignia.

With this Experimental GT, Opel looked ahead to the GT in 1965…

You probably already saw it, but the Experimental is not a traditional SUV. The shape of this show car seems to have been chosen for a reason. In addition to a new design, the 2018 Opel GT X Experimental, already mentioned, looked ahead to the car you now know as the Mokka, and an earlier Experimental concept – the Experimental GT from 1965 – was also a harbinger of a new model. That eventually became a few years later namely the Opel GT, poor man’s Corvette. This Opel Experimental also seems to be a clear hint to a future Opel model.

With this early design sketch, Opel announced the return of the Manta. The Experimental probably already shows more of that!

Manta

There will be successors to the Crossland and Grandland next year and you will already see elements of this Experimental on and in them. But in a few years Opel will also add a new model to the family with a very well-known name: Manta! In 2021, Opel already released an early sketch of the Manta, which already made it clear that Opel no longer dares to turn the new Manta into a coupe. You can bet that the Opel Manta will be a high-on-the-legs model, but one with a sharply sloping roofline and a relatively low silhouette. Indeed, just like this Experimental. Count on the arrival of a Peugeot 408-like model, but exactly how it dries up will become clear in the coming years.