Report: PSA Wants Refund from GM for Excess Opel Engine Emissions

PSA Group is asking for the return of more than half the purchase price for General Motors Co.’s Opel unit because Opel’s engines can’t upcoming carbon dioxide emission limits in Europe.

​​​​​​​PSA paid €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) for Opel. Sources tell Reuters the French carmaker claims it was mislead about the performance of the engines and is demanding the return of at least €650 million ($711 million) of the purchase price.

PSA says the problem has forced it to switch Opel vehicles to PSA engines faster than planned to avoid per-vehicle regulatory penalties that could reach €95 ($113) per gram of CO₂ above the allowable limit per vehicle.

European Union rules dictate that carmakers must lower the average CO₂ output of their new-car fleets to 95 g/km by 2021 from 130 g/km today. Reuters’ sources say GM figured Opel could meet that goal only by selling 20,000 imported Ampera-e battery-powered sedans per year at a per-unit loss of €10,000 ($11,900).

The Ampera-e is a variant of the Chevrolet Bolt EV. So far this year Opel has delivered only 1,500 of the cars.

PSA sources tell Reuters that at the time of the sale, Opel was on course to overshoot the 2021 CO₂ limit by more than 10 g/km. Doing so would trigger regulatory fines of about €1 billion ($1.5 billion), according to Reuters.

The two companies have discussed the complaint. PSA so far has not filed a formal claim or lawsuit over the dispute, the news service says.