Ivan Vicario Martin
El Opel Kadett Impuls I was born in 1990 as an electric research vehicle designed for the city. The German brand decided to experiment with one of its most popular production vehicles, to see how an electric car would adapt to the urban traffic of the time. It must be remembered that Opel Cadet E almost 3,8 million units were produced between August 1984 and May 1993.
The Rüsselsheim manufacturer already had a certain tradition in the development of electric models. In 1968, he presented the Kadett B Stir-Lec I, which mounted 14 lead batteries to power the vehicle. In addition, a combustion engine was equipped in the rear of the car that kept these batteries charged at all times. It is what we would call a kind of electric with extended autonomy.
Just three years later, appeared the Opel Electric GT which we already talked to you about extensively. It had two coupled electric motors that produced 88 kW of power, 120 HP, powered by a nickel-cadmium battery pack. Its range was 44 kilometers, as long as a constant speed of 100 km/h was maintained. Driven by Georg von Opel, grandson of the brand's founder, The Elektro GT broke six world records for electric vehicles with maximum speeds of up to 188 km/h.
THE OPEL KADETT E ELECTRIC
The body chosen, among the different ones that the Kadett had, was the three-door one, perhaps the most urbane. At the time of its development, the condition with which they worked on the German brand was that they had to Maintain maximum interior and trunk space. That is, electrification had to affect the essential characteristics of the model as little as possible. Electric yes, but not at any price, it had to be a perfectly operational and rational car.
Opel collaborated with energy company RWE and battery manufacturer SAFT, which today is a partner of PSA for the production of batteries at the Kaiserslautern plant (Germany). The Kadett Impuls I had a 100V DC electric drive connected to the front wheels. The maximum power was 16 kW (22 HP), a figure that was judged sufficient to function in a citizen environment.
The nickel-cadmium batteries were located under the trunk, in order to optimize weight distribution. With a capacity of 14,3 kWh, they weighed 310 kilos and their volume was 170 liters. They offered a range of 80 kilometers, and they took approximately five hours to fully charge. The cap to connect it to the power It is located on the left side of the front bumper. In addition, it had a braking system that recovered part of the energy and accumulated it in the batteries.
GOAL ACHIEVED
If we look at the features, the Opel Kadett Impuls I It went from 0 to 50 km/h in 10 seconds, and reached a maximum speed of 100 km / h. These are more than respectable figures for a model with a weight/power ratio of 45 kg/CV. It could also climb slopes of up to 25% gradient, no joke.
And everything, as we have anticipated, maintaining quite well the original capabilities of the three-door Kadett. In fact, the trunk, despite the presence of the batteries, barely lost 60 liters, going from 390 to 330 l. The payload was also respected quite a bit, since the 490 kilos of the standard car were reduced to 350 kg. Externally, only the decoration with the model name distinguishes it from any other series model. Fortunately, Opel keeps the Impuls I in perfect running order.
