GM Says Lighter RWD Platform on Way, Perhaps for U.S. Cars

A second chance in the U.S. for a rear-drive sedan like the defunct Pontiac G8?

Maybe not near-term, but General Motors Co.'s global-engineering chief isn't ruling out a U.S. return of a new-and-improved GM Holden Ltd.-developed Zeta platform down the road.

GM once had grand plans for the Zeta in North America, where it was expected to be used for a stable of domestically built rear-drive, full-size cars from Chevrolet to Buick. But more stringent federal corporate average fuel economy targets helped put those programs on ice.

GM has plans to produce a Zeta-derived police car in Australia for the U.S., and the Canada-built Camaro coupe is based on that architecture, but for the moment there does not appear to be any other retail-targeted programs in the works.

But Mark Reuss, who now leads global engineering after some 18 months at the helm of GM Holden, says Zeta was designed from the beginning to be globally competitive in fuel economy, and the next-generation version of the platform should be even better. “The next piece of this is we'll be taking mass out of that architecture,” Reuss adds.

Timing is unclear. Reports suggest the new platform would form the basis of a revamped Holden Commodore in 2013.

Reuss won't comment on when the next-gen Zeta arrives or its odds on underpinning more U.S. products, but he says if GM gets it right, “export markets — either the Middle East or the United States…will come knocking” at GM Holden's door.