The plugin market in Europe is small, because most people drive small cars, diesel often, that already run very economical . A plugin will never pay back the sizeable incremental costs, on average Euro 10,000 in different brands and models, unless there are serious government incentives.

IMHO, Europe has excellent public transit systems, such that cars are not used much but serve more as trophies and luxury items for the affluent, or for family trips, which require generous passenger and luggage capacity.

The Volt has poor passenger capacity, while the Ampera ain't no luxury ride, either. If a PEV is not driven much, the battery will still age and become worthless after less than a decade, while Europeans tend to keep their cars for many decades, requiring expensive battery changes.

The vast European public transit is already very energy efficient, therefore , BEV's do not make much impact on overall transportation efficiency.

The first gen Prius was overpriced and underperformed, so did not sell well at all. However the second gen Prius was a massive improvement and sold millions. Why shouldn't we expect the same from the Gen2 Volt/Ampera?