Opel and Vauxhall are not being positioned as premium brands, insist managers, but will be among the best of the volume carmakers.

Sales and marketing chief for both brand, Alain Visser, said: “We have no intention of competing with BMW or Audi, we want to take Opel and Vauxhall back to where there were, the best volume cars in Europe.”

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He added: “We used to be amongst the biggest sellers in many European markets – Opel used to have 70% share in Germany, and that’s where we want to be again.

“There is a lot of work to do to bring customers back to the brands and we now have some great products. Regaining the confidence of the customers is key and we are getting a lot closer to that in the UK with Vauxhall while Opel has ground to make up around Europe.”

GM Europe chief Nick Reilly said: “There is no doubt that the Opel and Vauxhall brands have been damaged following recent events but we are now winning many awards with our products and we can compete with anyone in the volume sector.”

While the two European brands up their game, Chevrolet will be GM’s value brand in the region. Reilly said that the US nameplate still needs to establish itself.

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“Chevrolet has 100 years of heritage but it still thought of as a big American car. The models now are much closer to the European cars but the pricing will remain somewhat lower. We will work hard to keep the brand apart.”

Reilly did not rule out building Chevys in European plants. “As the brand grows it would make sense. There is a long logistics chain from where the cars are currently made in the US or Asia and that makes things difficult in terms of customer service. We have made no decision on when or where, however.”