Vauxhall is planning a small urban car. Inspired by the clever Trixx concept, described as a 3-plus-1 seater, the model is aimed at the Toyota iQ and the upcoming Volkswagen Up!

The Vauxhall Trixx will be based on GM’s Voltec drivetrain but will completely eschew the range-extended 1.4-liter engine in favor of going fully electric with a goal of hitting a 90-mile range between charges.

The new Vauxhall is on track to achieve 90 miles between top-ups – making it perfect for city drivers, but that may not actually be the case. The lithium ion battery pack powering the Trixx could cost as much as £8,000 ($12,100) per unit to make. To counteract the high cost of entry, Vauxhall may sell the actual car while offering a separate lease for the battery.

GM’s Ople plan to have the first electric-vehicles (EV) for sale in Europe late in 2011. Opel and its UK arm Vauxhall will initially introduce a model derived directly from the Chevrolet Volt.

“The thinking goes that to have a significant impact on the environment, EREVs must be sold in high volumes, hence the reasoning for Chevrolet. The same logic is true for Europe, so the first EREV vehicle will be an Opel/Vauxhall, followed several months later by a Chevrolet” said GM Europe’s President Carl Peter Forster. “The Opel/Vauxhall will be derived directly from the Chevrolet Volt to get into the market quickly, but I can assure you that more variations for Opel-specific designs of EREVs are already in the works… but more on that at a much later time”, he added.

“The first EREV variants will certainly come from the U.S., but the thinking goes that to get significant long-term volumes to impact our CO2 compliance strategy, we will need production capability in Europe,” said Forster.

“Additionally, to deal with the huge cost implications of the new technology (the batteries initially are costing several of thousand Euros more than a typical engine/transmission setup), we need incentives for consumers to off-set the high costs and drive more volume. One thought that I floated in media discussions was that we get early adopter “super credits” under EU CO2 schedules for the initial volumes.”

“By giving an Opel/Vauxhall EREV-powered vehicle a high multiplier in CO2 fleet averaging, it would allow GM more flexibility in meeting the overall fleet average while pushing the vehicles into the fleet faster than otherwise would have happened. In other words, if one Volt was incentivized in the compliance plan to count as multiple vehicles at that low CO2 number, it would give GM incentive to offer a higher volume of Volts to the market than the affordability of the vehicle would normally warrant. This is a logical use of the regulations to get a desirable shift in consumer behaviour,” added Forster.