GM plans new brands based on concept car

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FRANKFURT, Germany -- General Motors Corp. plans to build a new worldwide family of mid- and full-size sedans and crossovers based on the underpinnings of the 344-horsepower Opel Insignia concept car it is showing at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, executives said.
The car uses a new architecture for cars that could be built on as many as four continents -- North America, Europe, Asia and Australia -- said GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. An architecture is a set of common parts and processes that can be used to produce a wide variety of vehicles.
Lutz would not say what GM calls the new architecture. As many as four or five of GM's brands could get V8-powered vehicles based on the architecture, he said, including Chevrolet, Pontiac, Opel/Vauxhall in Europe and Holden in Australia.