The final bits of information are trickling from the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, with the latest news being the confirmation of an unnamed electric vehicle for Opel-Vauxhall by 2020, according to AutoCar.
The news comes from an interview with General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, but she wouldn’t delve into many specifics on the EV, merely saying it will be in addition to the 2017Â Chevrolet Bolt. It had already been confirmed the 2016 Chevrolet Volt would not translate into a new Opel Ampera.
The Chevrolet Bolt is expected to be built alongside an Opel sibling at the Orion assembly plant in 2017.
If we had to take a stab at what the unnamed EV could be, it may rest somewhere in the all-new vehicle program also confirmed for the Orion assembly plant, which GM has invest $245 million for. Rumors suggest the program is for an all-new compact Cadillac crossover, and it’s quite possible the crossover features plug-in technology.
Depending on the platform and technology, the basis of a new plug-in Cadillac crossover could translate well into the European market that is crossover crazy right now.
Comment
One of the reasons Ampera didn’t sell was that it was too expensive — even more than the Volt in the US. With high gas prices in Europe, a reasonably priced Ampera probably would have been a slam dunk. Or even marketing as a Chevy Volt and helping to differentiate the now defunct Chevy network would have made sense.
They need to figure that transfer pricing stuff out — the cost of design/homologation for Europe isn’t a priceable feature — that’s captial investiment.
GM seems to make that mistake about a lot of stuff — Cruze diesel engines, propane engines on Impala etc. — they end up priced too high to get their intended sales volumes — and in some cases, wasting the investment by cancelling the programs.