Electric Commodore available by 2025

France’s PSA Group – the parent company of Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall and DS – is the latest car-maker to promise electrified versions of its entire model range, in this case by 2025.

The announcement follows similar commitments made recently by Volvo (by 2019), Jaguar Land Rover (by 2020) and Infiniti (from 2021) as countries, states and cities plan stricter mandates on CO2 emissions levels and in some cases diesel vehicle bans.

Speaking at this week’s Automotive News World Congress in Detroit this week, PSA CEO Carlos Tavares promised to deliver 40 electrified models across its five brands globally within seven years.

This is significant because Opel, which PSA purchased from General Motors late last year, supplies Holden’s first imported Commodore – the 2018 ZB liftback, wagon and crossover range that replaces Australia’s homegrown Commodore sedan, wagon and ute line-up next month.

Following PSA’s takeover of Opel, the French car-maker said it will fast-track the development of new Opel/Vauxhall models, switching them from GM platforms to its own platforms, reportedly as soon as 2021.

Holden boss Mark Bernhard last month said GMH had 12 to 18 months to decide whether it will stick with the PSA-sourced Commodore (and Astra hatch, which is also built by Opel in Europe), or swap to models sourced from sister GM brand Buick.

If it decides on the latter – presumably cheaper – option, the incoming Opel Insignia-based ZB Commodore could be ‘short-cycled’ within just a few years and replaced by a model based on the Buick Regal, a twin of the Insignia that is currently produced in China and Canada.

The Astra, meantime, is produced by Opel in Europe, and by GM in Korea, North America, Mexico, Argentina and China, where it’s known as the Buick Verano hatch and sedan. Australia’s Astra hatch currently comes from the UK, while the Astra sedan is imported from Korea, where it’s sold as the Cruze.

If Holden stays with PSA for its Commodore – assuming there is one -- it will also be replaced relatively quickly, in this case by an all-new Insignia range still built in Germany but this time based on PSA’s EMP platform instead of GM’s E2 architecture.

Apart from the new Insignia/Commodore/Regal, the E2XX platform currently underpins the latest Chevrolet Malibu, a model that’s been axed in Australia.

Meantime, PSA's EMP2 platform forms the basis of models including the Peugeot 308, 3008 and upcoming 5008, the Citroen C4 Picasso and the DS 7 Crossback not sold here.

Details about the hybrid, plug-in hybrid or perhaps even battery-electric powertrains that will be available in all PSA models by 2025 are scarce, but the company has offered a 150kW diesel-electric hybrid system dubbed HYbrid4 in selected European Peugeot and DS models since 2011.

In late 2016 PSA announced a new plug-in petrol-electric system to be launched simultaneously in China and Europe via the DS brand in 2019.

It said the front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive applicable PHEV system will spread to seven Peugeot, Citroen and DS models globally by 2021.

In AWD form, PSA’s PHEV powertrain comprises a four-cylinder petrol engine outputting between 112 and 150kW, an eight-speed automatic transmission, an 80kW electric motor for each axle and a small 13kWh battery pack under the rear seat.

The latter is claimed to be fully rechargeable in 4.5 hours (2.5 hours with a fast-charger) and PSA claims a total power output of 300hp (224kW), plus an EV range of 60km.

PSA this week also committed to launching 124 new models across six regions worldwide over the next six years, including a return to North America, for which a team of US engineers is already developing an undisclosed model in Europe.

"We want to become the most efficient car-maker ... not the largest," Tavares told Automotive News, adding that 80 per cent of the company's vehicles will have autonomous functions by 2030, and 10 per cent will have up to Level 4 and Level 5 autonomy.

He also told Automotive News that -- as part of PSA’s 10-year turnaround plan for Opel, for which it paid $US2.6 billion – the Opel and Vauxhall brands will continue to sell distinctively German models because some people won’t buy French cars.

“Turning Opel around is my priority number one,” Tavares told Automotive News Group Publisher KC Crain.

“Opel is a German brand. Its models will continue to be designed and engineered by German engineers, thus it perfectly fits our French brand portfolio,” he said.