The German carmakerr is one of the oldest in the world, established back in 1862 by Adam Opel. It presented its first car in 1899 but managed to slowly slip into quasi-oblivion during its ownership by General Motors. Now, a few years after being resuscitated by the PSA Group we could be seeing a Phoenix-level return to success. The first heartbeat should be the new generation Mokka and Mokka-e.
Surprisingly enough – especially for a classic German brand – the second iteration of the subcompact crossover is quite the intrepid in terms of styling. We have seen such boldness at Opel back in the days of the Opel Adam (the little, fashionable model named after the company’s parent) - but we really hope the company has learned its lesson about market positioning.
There are a lot of unknown details about the new Mokka and its all-electric Mokka-e counterpart (the only one revealed so far). But we do know that a modernized logo will also be joining the new identity of the SUVs.
Of course, today, that is simply not enough. Therefore, Opel is also bringing a centrally positioned “Mokka” emblem on the tailgate, complete with new font to compliment the reworked flash logo. According to Opel, the current flash in a round circle logo has been in use since 1963. It was only back in 1970 that a unified design was achieved, followed by its first revision back in 1987.
During the current millennium, the pace of modifications surged – the flash became a 3D shape, then in 2016 took a chromed appearance and in 2017 was refreshed again with a flatter shape. From now on all future models will come with another logo revision – the ring has been slimmed down and the Opel calligraphy is engraved as if written on a piece of jewelry.
Meanwhile, the Blitz is a central part of the new Opel Vizor front fascia and has been precisely coordinated with the model name on the back. Interesting, but you may also want to know that Opel has been working on electric cars for three decades. 30 years ago, they developed an electric research vehicle named Kadett Impuls I.
It was made with city driving in mind (hello, Corsa-e), had just 16kW (22 HP) under the hood and unlively performance – like a long 0 to 50 kph (31 mph) acceleration time of exactly ten seconds. The one-ton car had a maximum top speed of 100 kph (62 mph) and ultramodern batteries for the time – a 14.3 kWh nickel-cadmium pack.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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