The first Opel concept based on GM’s Volt extended-range electric platform was the Ampera, a cheap rebadge that made onlookers exclaim “lands alive, that’s a cheap rebadge!” Since the Ampera debuted, a river of bad blood has flowed under the bridge of GM-Opel relations, and in an apparent pique of independence, Opel has declared its freedom from the corporate mothership with this re-imagining of the Volt, called the Flextreme. And it might just show the way out of GM’s European family feud: GM technology underpinning starkly Teutonic, vaguely upscale designs which stubbornly refuse to acknowledge their technical roots sounds like as good a vision for Opel as we’ve heard yet. Too bad about the money problems. And the Flextreme’s less-than-subtle Lexus LF-A cues. And the fact that the Flextreme would make a crap Buick.