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Will Chevy Bolt get Opel badge in Europe?

General Motors' European plug-in vehicle name may go from A to B. That's because the Chevrolet Bolt could be sold under GM's Opel brand across the Pond, Automotive News Europe says, citing people familiar with the process that it declined to identify. The Ampera, the European version of the Volt extended-range plug-in vehicle, is being phased out due to poor sales. While the Ampera won the European Car of the Year in 2012, its sales have trended well below expectations. That the Bolt would be sold as an Opel hints to us that GM expects to distribute the electric vehicle in far smaller numbers than in the US. The Bolt, which was introduced in January in its concept version at the North American Auto Show in Detroit, will have a single-charge range of about 200 miles. GM representatives didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from AutoblogGeen on Friday afternoon. The car will also have a price tag in the US of about $30,000, factoring in federal-government tax incentives. That's if those tax incentives are still around in 2017, when the Bolt is expected to debut stateside. Related Videos: Featured Gallery Chevrolet Bolt EV Concept News Source: Automotive News Europe-sub.req. Green Chevrolet GM Opel Electric Chevrolet Bolt bolt

GM is the latest automaker accused of diesel emissions cheating

Volkswagen and Ram need to make room on the diesel-emissions bench for General Motors. America's largest automaker was accused in a lawsuit on Thursday of rigging hundreds of thousands of diesel trucks with at least three so-called defeat devices to ensure that the trucks would meet federal and state emission standards, even if they generated more pollution in real-world driving. According to the complaint, on-road emissions testing conducted for the plaintiffs found that Duramax-equipped trucks produced NOx pollutants, comprised of nitrogen and oxygen atoms, two to five times higher than legally permitted, and "many times" higher than their gasoline counterparts. The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Detroit on behalf of people who own or lease more than 705,000 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks fitted with "Duramax" engines from 2011 to 2016 model years. The lawsuit seeks remedies including possible refunds or restitution for lost vehicle value, plus punitive damages. It adds to legal problems for Detroit-based GM, which has already paid about $2.5 billion in penalties and settlements over faulty ignition switches linked to 124 deaths. GM joins at least five automakers whose diesel emissions have been scrutinized by regulators or consumers. They include VW, which has admitted to cheating; Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler; Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Peugeot and Renault. GM spokesman Dan Flores called the claims "baseless," and said the trucks comply with US Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards and California's own tough standards. Shares of GM were down 69 cents, or 2.1 percent, at $32.50 in afternoon trading, after earlier falling to $31.93. The GM lawsuit was filed by several law firms, including Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, which helped reach multibillion-dollar settlements with VW on behalf of drivers and dealers. The case is Fenner et al v General Motors LLC et al, US District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, No. 17-11661. The named plaintiffs are Andrei Fenner of Mountain View, California and Joshua Herman of Sulphur, Louisiana. They said they would not have bought their respective 2011 Sierra and 2016 Silverado trucks, or would have paid less for them, had they known about the alleged rigging. Joseph Spak, an RBC Capital Markets analyst, in a research report said "negative publicity" from the lawsuit could drive buyers to trucks from Ford or even Fiat Chrysler's Ram.

Opel CEO talks new EV, will likely be fresh face for Chevy, too

The rumored demise of the Opel Ampera has been confirmed, but there's good news, too. Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann has been busy Tweeting information about the brand's next plug-in vehicle, admitting that the Ampera is on the way out but that plug-in vehicles are here to stay. His Tweets, in full, read: After the eventual run-out of the current generation Ampera, we'll introduce a successor product in the electric vehicle segment. Our next electric vehicle will be part of our massive product offensive – with 27 new vehicles in the 2014-2018 time frame. We see eMobility as important part of the mobility of tomorrow and we will continue to drive down costs & deliver affordability. As we learned earlier this week, the Ampera will not be refreshed when the current Chevy Volt is updated, most likely because of slow sales. Opel sold just 332 Amperas in the first five months of 2014. For now, General Motors is still building Amperas in Michigan for export to Europe. So, what might this new EV mean for the General Motors plug-in fleet? Official spokespeople are being quiet, but we think it's safe to say the new EV Neumann is talking about is not simply a rebadged Chevy Spark EV. This is the first official word about an entirely new EV, and we expect it will come to both the Chevrolet and Opel brands.