Mary Barra is making her first trip outside the U.S. since she took over as CEO of General Motors on Januray 15. Today, Barra visited Opel’s headquarters in Germany where she backed plans for Opel to produce an all-new model at the automaker’s main factory in Russelsheim Germany.
“Opel is clearly a vital part of the company,” said Barra. “I thought it was very important to reinforce in person my commitment, and GM’s commitment, to Opel.”
Opel is investing $5.2 billion through 2016 to develop new engines and vehicles to help return the brand to profitability by mid-decade. GM has lost more than $18 billion in Europe since 1999.
Opel plans to re-tool the Russelsheim plant, which currently builds the Insignia, Astra, and Zafria Tourer starting in 2015, in order to accommodate production of a new model that Barra says “will go hand-in-hand” with the additional spending in Germany. Barra added that she is “very pleased with Opel’s progress so far.”
Comments
Now if only we got a Verano 3/5-door hatch and Regal wagon from them!
@EvanG
I think the next generations of both Astra/Verano and Insignia/Regal will be completely shared with some differences is design, modifications and perhaps engines. There are also rumors that the next version of Insignia/Regal will have more variants…
We can only hope. . .
America and Europe are too different. if they all cooperated and hard to enhance and complement each other and provide the best solutions üksteiele and so grow bigger and better. I do not understand why, for example, Insignia and Regal, however, different. Insignia and Regal ikak could totally be one and the same, only the name of the second. All engines, bodywork options, fittings and accessories would be exactly the same.
Grup VW AUDI, VW, SEAT, SKODA …. are all European cars, and they know exactly what is going on all the time, and work together pretty nicely, and is available everywhere in the world.
GM has been on my mind a lot of confusing things. Why GM brands sold at different ratios of similar models, however, any differences MOKKA OPEL, BUICK ENCORE and then a slightly different CHEVROLET TRAX. Let it all be either ENCOR OR TRAX way.
How did the European and the German automaker GM got together and what year did it happen and why.
AMERICA to bring the sale of all Vauxhall models, exactly the same way as they are in Europe, but in America it will only BUICK named. I can not selelst topic at all just realize that what a mess it is. It would, after all, all of the money. Perhaps America will take more customers audilt BUICK, VW.
The Buick Regal is actually different than the Opel Insignia, because there is no such equipment as insignia.Tänapäeval car in the world has to move pretty quickly, and at a very high level and it’s not easy.
and the kind of thing that is kind of different models of the world into different countries and changing the name is also correct. European and American fashion taste is different. BUICK example, if you would still like European or American fashion.
Does buick let him keep his way, and then let him take Opel to America. So these things do not quite work as sales in Europe as Opel would take some big BUICK Opel SUV and put the tag. People want to BUICK or OPEL.
I do not know what America wants in Europe but still want to drive either an American or a European car rather than a car americneuropean
Example: If you already have a Buick Regal could be exactly the same as the Opel Insignia. not some half-
Some news from Ms. Barra’s visit in Rüsselsheim: Dan Amman, who accompanied Barra on her European trip, is nominated to replace Steve Girsky as chairperson of the Aufsichtsrat (advisory council) of the Adam Opel AG. I thought that Barra and Amman would hold a general assembly of the shareholders at their visist, but no news yet.
Since Amman is already on the “Aufsichtsrat”, GM has to send another person fill up their share. And there are probably some more representatives from the owner’s side to be replaced — e.g. Timothy E. Lee is leaving the company, and there might be some more of the GM side on the council for whom they have to find a replacement.
Finally a little factoid: the International Technical Development Center was mentioned as being GM’s second largest. In the German press release, it was mentioned once by its english abbreviation, ITDC, and once by its German abbreviation, ITEZ (for Internationales Technisches EntwicklungsZentrum).
A Video of some public presentation with a lot of, well, words.
The really bad thing of this video is that the makers of it couldn’t decide for one language, they dubbed both the German speaking K.T. Neumann with an english translation spoken over and the remarks by Ms. Barra and Mr. Amman, speaking english, with a German translation spoken over.