Opel Ampera Wins Rally Monte Carlo

• Four Ampera electric vehicles among the top 10 in rally for alternative propulsion
• French team Darniche/Lambert successful against some 130 competitors
• Debuting Ampera succeed in durability and fuel consumption tests

Opel Ampera won Rally Monte Carlo for alternative propulsion

After winning the “Car of the Year 2012” award, the Opel Ampera has now also won the 13. International Monte Carlo Rally for electric cars and alternative propulsion in which it competed for the first time. Four Ampera ranked among the top 10 vehicles. The French duo Bernard Darniche and Joseph Lambert managed to beat the entire competitive field. On Sunday, the final day of the contest, the revolutionary electric vehicle reached the finish line in the capital of the Côte d’Azur principality. Some 130 competitors from about 30 manufacturers took part, among them seven Ampera, including one private Ampera team. The other contenders included a Renault Fluence Z.E., a Tesla Roadster sports car, a Mitsubishi I-MiEV and a Peugeot Ion. Apart from the overall victory, the Ampera teams with Charlotte Berton and Olivier Sussot ranked third, Jean-Claude Andruet and Patrick Lienne came in 7^th and Hanns Werner Wirth and Daniel Riesen finished 8^th, completing the fantastic result.

Opel Ampera on Rally Monte Carlo - German Team

“The Ampera’s success in this versatility contest under very challenging conditions proves its impressive balance between durability and fuel efficiency. This underscores our leadership role in the field of alternative propulsion,” says Opel’s Director E-mobility, Enno Fuchs. The “Rallye Monte-Carlo Des Énergies Nouvelles” took place for the 13^th time and has established itself as the oldest motorsport event for vehicles with alternative propulsion. The Monte Carlo Automobile Club has organized the competition since 1995.

Endurance test for alternative propulsion

The rally started in the three towns of Annecy-le-Vieux, Clermont Ferrand and Lugano for 550 kilometers via Digne-les-Bains, the capital of the French district (département) Alpes-de-Haute-Provence to Monaco. On the second day, the teams had to complete a distance of 272 kilometers, leading them through Monaco and the original route of the Monte Carlo Rally through the French Maritime Alps. In these two days the teams were subjected to regularity tests and had to prove their driving skills by pushing their vehicles to the limit.

Apart from the regularity tests, the focus lay with fuel consumption. With the help of a ratio derived from vehicle weight, CO₂ emissions, the energy density of the fuel and its consumption, the organizers were able to calculate a comparison value and draw up an overall ranking. “The sophisticated technology of the Ampera was always reliable and enabled our tremendous success,” says the French rally co-pilot, Joseph Lambert who celebrated the victory with driver Bernhard Darniche. Darniche already won the legendary Monte Carlo Rally in 1979 and has more than 10 times been successful in winning the special stage over the famous Col de Turini.

Opel Ampera on Rally Monte Carlo - French Team

 

The Opel Ampera is the first electric vehicle that can go anywhere anytime. A 16 kWh lithium ion battery powers the 111kW/150 hp electric motor. Depending on the style of driving and road conditions, distance of between 40 and 80 kilometers can be covered in the purely battery-operated mode, completely free of emissions. The wheels of the Ampera are always powered electrically. In extended-range mode, which activates whenever the battery has reached its minimum state of charge, the gasoline engine drives a generator that supplies the electric drive unit. The range extender enables an operating radius of 500 kilometers. On the road, the Ampera’s electric propulsion system provides instant torque of 370 Nm enabling zero to 100 km/h acceleration in around nine seconds and a top speed of 161 km/h.

Opel Ampera on Rally Monte Carlo - German Team

Opel Revolutionizes Lighting in Auto Construction

• Opel develops intelligent, glare-free LED matrix light
• For more than a decade Opel has leadership in light system development

Opel has developed a revolutionary safety lighting system, the intelligent LED matrix light. This light technology which is completely new to automotive construction will make night-time driving even safer and more relaxing and comfortable for the driver.

Opel is currently the first car maker to road-test a fully integrated matrix light in prototypes. The matrix light embodies a new philosophy in lighting technology. Rather than using the low beam as the default setting, the high beam is always the standard mode in the new matrix lighting concept. By taking this new approach, the high beam is always kept glare free and is automatically adapted according to the traffic situation. In that sense the matrix light assists the driver in an intelligent way, giving him a stress free driving experience, while maintaining the highest possible level of safety. The light is adjusted more rapidly to the current traffic situation than any solution which relies on the driver or is based on mechanically moved elements.

“Active safety is a focal point of the engineering strategy at Opel," says Opel’s Vice President of Engineering, Rita Forst. "We were the first automakers to bring AFL – the combination of dynamic xenon curve light and static cornering light – to the market back in 2002. Opel is now set to revolutionize night-time driving again with the intelligent matrix light, the most advanced automotive lighting system in the world.”

The matrix light works in combination with the Opel front camera which is located between the windshield and the rear-view mirror. As soon as the sensors of the front camera detect light sources from oncoming or proceeding traffic, that area is completely dimmed, while the rest of the road remains brightly illuminated.

This ensures that while other road users are never dazzled, other non-illuminated obstacles are always made visible.

The exclusive use of LED elements inside the matrix light, has a series of significant benefits since the new light system is more energy efficient than conventional HID and halogen lamps. It only uses around half the energy consumed by halogen lamps. Each of the two matrix headlamps consists of four light segments. Behind each segment, there are four separate light sources that can be switched on or off individually, producing sixteen possible AFL combinations per headlamp. The changes between the 256 different possible light settings are smooth and fluid, without the driver even noticing.

So far only the day running lights were able to replicate Opel’s signature arrow shape. However, now the low beam when used at night can also do this. This was done by combining the two functions: the day time running lights and the low beam now share the row of seven light elements. The solution gives the vehicle designers more freedom to create new car designs.

The new matrix light concept will be gradually rolled out across Opel’s car lines in the next few years, as was the case in 2002 when Opel became the first car maker to bring the safety lighting system AFL to market. The most up-to-date AFL system (AFL+) includes bi xenon gas discharge lamps, adverse weather light, dynamic curve light and static cornering light, high beam light assistant and LED daytime running lights.

LEDs in headlamps offer high differentiation potential for automakers

• Light color even closer to daylight
• Strong increase in LED signal functions in headlamps
• In future, it will be possible to implement intelligent lighting functions without mechanisms

Hella Adaptive Full LED headlamp prototype in Opel Signum

Article of 22.03.2007

March 2007. These days, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are used as light sources at the vehicle rear and, increasingly, also at the vehicle front, for signal functions. In the coming years, this trend will grow considerably. The first full LED headlamps, which will generate low beam and high beam, will be on the market in 2007 and 2008. They open up new, far reaching styling options and therefore great differentiation potential for automakers. At Hella, the next LED headlamp generation is already being developed: from about 2012, freely addressable LED arrays (assemblies) will make new, active lighting functions possible.

Extremely long service life (up to 10,000 hours), a high level of reliability, low package space, rapid switch-on behavior and, depending on the function, up to 80 percent less power consumption: these advantages have now secured LEDs a firm position on the vehicle rear. Consistently, these advantages are being used especially in the case of central high mounted stop lamps, but also more and more in combination rear lamps. For at least six years, LEDs have been offered which generate white light. The first applications in the front-end area are the position light and daytime running light. The rapid development of their performance now makes them usable for low beam and high beam as well.

In relation to this, the light color of the white LEDs (color temperature approx. 5,500 kelvin) approaches that of daylight (approx. 6,000 kelvin) considerably more than xenon light (approx. 4,000 kelvin). This fits in with what humans are used to seeing. Car drivers do not tire as quickly and are more relaxed when driving. In addition, the white LEDs are also a convincing choice thanks to their fast response time, and it is possible to cover two functions (such as position light and daytime running light) using a single light source. Their luminous efficiency is increasing rapidly: while today it is over 40 lm/W, there are already prototypes in research institutes with approximately 130 lm/W (in comparison with xenon light: approx. 90 lm/W, halogen light 20 lm/W).

 

LED headlamps have a modular design

As high luminous power is required for low beam and high beam, Hella chooses multi-chip LEDs for the LED headlamp. Special chip arrangements and housing geometries make it possible to generate the cut off line without additional mechanical shading. This allows compact headlamp systems to be realized. The light distribution is designed in an almost modular manner:

• A symmetrical basic light distribution with large dispersion provides homogeneous illumination of the close range in front of the vehicle.
• In the central area close to the cut off line, a field with high illuminance overlaps this basic light distribution and generates the range of the low beam on the left hand side of the road (oncoming traffic).
• The long range asymmetrical "light finger" on the right hand side of the road provides the necessary long range orientation for the driver.
• The addition of further optical modules makes it possible to realize AFS lighting functions, such as town, country, motorway and adverse weather light. Triggering takes place by means of electronic control units which then switch on or switch off further light sources according to the current driving situation.

The different light distributions are generated by means of different optical modules that are matched to each other. Variation possibilities with regard to the arrangement and number of the modules open up new, far reaching styling options and therefore great potential for differentiation for automakers.

LED low beam is close to the Xenon values

Thus, the full LED headlamp prototype from Hella has been realized in an Opel Signum using different transmissive optical elements. Six optical units generate the low beam. Three further units are added for the high beam, a special module is sufficient for the cornering light. Daytime running light/position light and direction indicator with LEDs complete the full LED headlamp, which, in the case of low beam, is already very close to the Xenon values. With reference to the number of LEDs and their performance, these and other prototypes are designed in such a way that luminous power similar to a Xenon headlamp can be achieved in 2008. With regard to this, the Hella lighting specialists take into consideration the continuously increasing performance of white LEDs which is to be expected by then. 

Hella Adaptive Full LED headlamp in Opel Signum

LED - Array

Hella is working with LED arrays (assemblies) as light sources for future headlamps. They consist of several individually addressable LED chips which are arranged in accordance with a predefined pattern onto a carrier substrate. The individual chips are triggered by means of pulse width modulation. This allows, on the one hand, the switching on and switching off of individual LED chips and therefore the generation of different cut off line geometries, on the other hand, it also allows an intensity modulation in the light distribution. In addition to the implementation of AFS lighting functions without mechanisms, LED arrays make possible, in conjunction with forward looking vehicle sensor technology and intelligent triggering electronics, the realization of active lighting functions such as marker light or glare free high beam. 

Approval situation for LEDs in headlamps:

In the USA, headlamps with LEDs for the main lighting functions are already permitted according to the SAE standards valid there. In Europe, or in the scope of application of the ECE regulations, corresponding approval can be expected by 2008. Signal functions in the headlamp (direction indicator, side marker light, position light and daytime running light, as well as cornering light) with LEDs are today permitted both in the ECE and SAE scope of application.