New GM Platform to Debut in Next-Generation Cruze?

When the new Chevrolet Cruze debuts two years from now, it will ride on a new small-car platform destined to carry 2.5 million General Motors Co. small cars and crossovers worldwide by 2018, Reuters reports.

The news service cites unnamed sources who say the global platform, which is code named D2XX, will replace four existing GM platforms: three for small cars and one for crossovers.

Among the future models to share the platform will be successors to the Chevy Volt hybrid, Equinox crossover and Opel Astra small car, according to Reuters' sources. GM declined to acknowledge the D2XX program.

On Wednesday GM said it will spend $200 million to prepare its Cruze plant in Lordstown, Ohio, for the next-generation model. GM says the redesigned car will have more interior space and better fuel economy than the current Cruze, which launched U.S. production in late 2010.