Under General Motors ownership, Opel hadn’t turned a profit since 1999. After spiraling losses, the U.S automaker unloaded its European operations earlier this year to France’s PSA Groupe.
Now, PSA is preparing Opel and its operations for inbound cost-cutting measures, according to Automotive News Europe. PSA CEO Carlos Tavares commented on Opel during a roundtable discussion during the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. There, he said Opel cannot continue operating in its current fashion and expect profitability.
“The only answer for an Opel future is to make the company profitable. The only thing we cannot afford is the status quo,” he said.
With the acquisition of Opel, PSA has now gained another 3,000 engineers, though most of them have focused on projects exclusively for GM. Tavares made it clear it doesn’t plan a mass exodus of employees, though.
“With Opel, our development capacity has grown by 50 percent. We now have the great opportunity to use this development power.”
Tavares added most necessary job cuts had already taken place in 2009 when the global financial crisis forced tough decisions for many global businesses. However, it seems clear there will eventually be reductions in employees, or potential factories, under PSA ownership. PSA will also move quickly to integrate vehicles onto its architectures.
PSA will support Opel’s business plans, and Tavares noted Opel is building its working on a turnaround plan, which will be presented to the French automaker in November.
As for Vauxhall, things are gloomier as Brexit consequences loom and the potential for tariffs seem like a possibility.
Comment
There is a misunderstanding in saying that with the acquisition of Opel PSA gained “additional 3000 enineers”. The 3000 is the number of encgineers in the Rüsselsheim ITEZ who are currently working on GM projects which are not related with Opel products, or at least are not geared towards direct Opel business. This is just the normal GM way of doing things: a development project is tendered an the various GM dev centers submit their bid for the project.
It had been reported earlier, that these projects provide enough work up to 2020.
The total number for the people working in the Rüsselsheim ITEZ was recently given as 7000; earlier it was said to be 6000. Anyway, always rough figures.
This includes all kinds of workers – from the university graduate to an hourly paid operator of engine test stands or what all is needed in a technical development (and research?) center and big design studio.