We know that the much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt will spawn a European cousin based on the Opel Flextreme concept car, built around the Volt’s E-Flex petrol-electric technology and using the platform from the next Astra/Zafira.

And we know also that General Motors has talked about the possibility of bringing the Volt itself to Europe (no doubt to left-hand-drive markets). But to date we haven’t been told what either of these cars might be called in the UK. Vauxhall Volt does have a ring to it, of course, but does Vauxhall Flextreme?

Names are a small point but, we feel, an intriguing one. So we note with much interest that General Motors UK has just applied for a trademark on the name “Vauxhall Electra”.

This move is, we feel, surely too much to be a coincidence.