With the European automotive market still in a slump, Opel is reportedly reducing its output of Adam mini cars this month with a couple of shutdown days in October, according to Automotive News. Opel says that the reduction is also due to the lack of vehicle demand that is inherent of the winter months, and that the Adam’s plant in Eisenach, Germany also builds the Corsa, an aging product with lowering demand.
Opel Tapers Adam, Corsa Production In October
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There will be seven days without production in the Eisenach Opel plant, where the Adam and some Corsa are
being produced. I see as the main reason that GM/Opel prefers not to pay for the overtime which had been worked in the extra shifts to cope with high demand for the Adam, and compensate it with free time, resulting in seven non-working days in October 2013.
In the coming three weeks, the Mondays and Fridays will not be worked. Next Monday, October 7, is a regular Betriebsversammlung (general workers and staff meeting), then the Fridays October 11, 18, and 25, and the Mondays 14 and 21 and will not worked. The seventh day was probably yesterday, Friday Oct 4, as a “bridging day” between the weekend and the public holiday October 3, remembering the ‘Anschluß’ of the GDR to the FRG in 1990. October 31 is a public holiday in the Land Thüringen, where Eisenach is located (“Reformationstag”, remembering Martin Luther’s act to nail his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg). So all weeks will be three-day weeks this month, resulting in four prolonged weekends.
Some media have indulged in speculations about a sudden slump in demand for the Adam, some pointing to lower new car registrations in August (Germany: 1226 in August, compared to 2541 and 2732 in June and July respectively), but hiding the fact that the Eisenach plant had its annual holiday, this year of only three weeks, which was used to upgrade the paint shop for more two-color Adams (see this blog for Opel Announces 8 Million Euro Investment Into Eisenach, Germany Plant For Adam Production (Sept 4).
The detailed new car registration figures for September in Germany, broken down to individual model families, are not yet available to the public, but Opel has already announced per press release that their figures have risen significantly against the general market trend downwards; the release mentioned continued high demand for the Adam as one of the driving factors.
The media anymore is often controlled by automakers. Pay back for advertising, kick backs in product and money to media has taken place globally. Most MFG have done it and Toyota has been the greatest offender.
Just look at the anti GM media for years when they could pay off the media. Now that hey are buying more advertising in the media they have been giving them more of a break. Part is better product for sure but the reality is they do play favorites to those who spend or give money to them.
last week I wrote: new car registrations in August (Germany: 1226 in August, compared to 2541 and 2732 in June and July respectively),
For September 2013, the new car registrations of Opel Adam is given as 2,361, 92.6% more than in August. Not yet back to the figures of June and July, but the August dip did certainly not represent a trend.
Maybe the reduction in production is a reaction for getting ready for demand of the performance VXR & OPC Adam and Facelifted Corsa.
The reason for the august dip is, that from july 29th till august 16th there was production holiday for the Eisenach plant. During this time there were major reconstruction of the basecoat inside the paint shop. So in august only 2 weeks were production time.