General Motors CEO Mary Barra reinforced the corporation’s strong support for the Opel brand on her most recent trip to Germany, confirming plans announced back in March, 2014 for an all-new SUV to be built in Rüsselsheim.
The recently-announced SUV is, for now, simply a promise; we don’t have specs, renderings, nor even so much as a name for the vehicle. But we do know that the SUV will arrive in European showrooms by the end of the decade, and “will be the brand’s second flagship alongside the Insignia,” according to Barra.
An official release also relays one factor in General Motors’ enthusiastic interest in the Opel brand: the Corsa. The new 2015 model has accrued approximately 45,000 pre-orders to-date, which Ms. Barra notes, already sets the latest Corsa on its way to becoming a bestseller.
In addition to the announced SUV, General Motors will also be making a sizable, nearly $1 billion investment into the Opel plants in Rüsselsheim and Kaiserslautern, Germany, and in Tychy, Poland. This is part of a broader fuel-efficient “product offensive” which aims to put out 27 new models and 17 new engines.
“Opel is of high strategic importance for GM,” stated Ms. Barra. “These additional investments will help the brand shine again and further strengthen our position in Europe. They are a clear sign of GM’s commitment to Opel, to Germany and to Europe.”
Comments
Must be the next Enclave. The next Antara (Envision) seems be too small to be a flagship. But if the next Enclave is on the E2XX, it could very well be a flagship alongside the Insignia.
Can any of you knowledgeable chaps shed some light on when/if the Envision will be available in Europe?. I’m wondering, with
the next Zafira and Meriva moving to a more SUV configuration, whether G.M will bother marketing the Envision in Europe!
That’s what I do think: a successor to the current Insignia based on E2XX, plus a SUV based on the same platform. “Alongside” was the word.