General Motors CEO Mary Barra said Thursday the company is standing by its promise of returning to profitability in Europe by 2016, Reuters reports. Opel president Karl-Thomas Neumann cast doubt on the mid-term target in December, saying the profit goals were “not secure” and that they “see strong headwinds for 2015.”
Opel/Vauxhall reported a third-quarter loss in Europe in the third-quarter of 2014 of $387 million, up from a $238 million loss the year prior. The brands’ deliveries rose 3 percent in 2014 to 1.08 million units, while combined market share rose 0.1 percent to 5.74 percent. GM’s European arm is looking to claim 8 percent of the European car market by 2022, as outlined in the Drive Opel 2022 intiaitive.
GM’s outlook for Europe in 2015 goes against that of Ford, which changed its outlook on the region amid ongoing financial troubles in Russia. The automaker, which filed a $439 million loss in the third-quarter of 2014, has said it will not achieve its previous goal of returning to profitability in Europe this year.
Automotive analysts say that while both Ford and GM offer competitive products in Europe, both brands are not strong enough to command asking prices necessary to drive profitability.
Comments
GM does Opel a great disservice by making the division appear unprofitable on paper with this never ending shell game?
Is Regal really a Buick? Did Chevy properly pay Opel for it’s help regarding Cruze and Malibu? It’s Russia European or part of international opts?
Do you hate or love the Opel and Europe. I’m a GM fan and my heart belongs to Opel
leadership and leaders is very important. GM plans and a new management team and I like, and I believe that they want to be successful. The current management is equally to everyone, at least that is the feeling now, however, it is too early to tell. You can, however, make sure to Barra and others have left a good impression on me as well. I like to Barra
Opel/Vauxhall and Buick are my favorite divisions. I’m tired of seeing Opel get screwed by GM–the brand is land locked; as a result, the company feels free to loot the brand, pay low-ball licencing fees that go directly to Maryland, and then blame Opel management for loosing money.
Opel drives growth at every GM division. They are, in addition, in charge of Chevy ‘future cars’, namely Malibu and last gen Cruze.
OPEL would be earning a profit right now if GM actually paid the division for it’s work or, at the least, allowed for global expansion.
i think the answer of why gm struggle in europe is easy: gm is not focused on europe. gm want a bigger stake from the pie but they dont have a group of brands to compete against the whole. only opel is competing against huge amount of challenging brand groups like vw group, daimler mercedes-benz, bmw group, ford group, fiat-chrysler group, renault group, psa and so on. if gm decides to have only opel stronghold in europe, the strategy must be making opel a premium brand has a large variety of premium passenger cars from the mini car to the lacrosse-equal luxury car. premium brand image of opel must be back. without omegas, speedsters, monzas, rekords, admirals you can not be real opel. that means you cant have a mass group of opel-fanatics.