The PSA Group is said to be seeking a refund of between £529 million and £700m (€600-800m) from General Motors (GM) following its purchase of Vauxhall and Opel, in the belief that GM held back on fully explaining the severity of the brands' emissions challenges.
According to Reuters, sources close to the sale report that PSA could be exposed to heavy fines if the problem is not solved by the time new EU regulations on emissions come into effect in 2020-21.
The new limits will be enforced with levies for manufacturers that aren’t compliant with the 95g/km fleet average CO2 limit.
The solution to this would be shifting Vauxhall and Opel cars to PSA powertrains ahead of schedule.
PSA accuses GM of misleading it over the challenges it will face in bringing the former GM Europe range into line with the 2020-21 limit and will use this as grounds for a legal claim. The claim has not yet been officially initiated, though.
A GM spokesman told Reuters: “We are not aware of any claim submitted by PSA regarding future CO2 targets and we cannot speculate on issues that have not been raised with us. PSA undertook a robust due diligence process including their employees and many experts and lawyers. We provided them with substantial information.”
Autocar is awaiting comment from PSA.
Read more:
PSA Group purchase of Opel and Vauxhall completed with new financial company
Insight: Why has PSA bought Opel and Vauxhall?
PSA boss Tavares: "strong intention" to keep all plants open
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First signs of trouble?
PSA has a history of doing deals then closing factories....
Diesel wise GM Europe uses
Diesel wise GM Europe uses Fiat engines, apart from the new 1.6 Whisper diesel which is a 2 year old GM design.
typos1 wrote:
AFAIK, the Gm 1.6 Whisper diesel is a comprehensive evolution from the GM-Fiat Alliance engine which was itself evolved from Fiat JTD. GM Powertrain Torino, which developed it, remains part of GM and wasn't included in the sale to PSA.
Allegation
PSA's allegation seems to be that GM deliberately withheld information during the due diligence process - if that's proved, GM will be liable.
The good news in the mean time is that this situation forces PSA to ditch GM powertrains and replace them with their own to get the emissions within the new limits - which will hit GM's expected revenue stream from IP licence fees.