Sales of General Motors vehicles in the European Union grew 5.8 percent to 97,689 units in September 2015.
The results are comprised of a 6.4 percent increase to 97,579 units in Opel-Vauxhall sales as well as 110 Chevrolet unit sales, which represents an 81.3 percent decrease as GM continues to withdraw the brand from Europe’s mainstream vehicle segments.
Despite increases in sales, the results furnish GM Europe and Opel-Vauxhall with lower market shares in September 2015 compared to the same month in 2014.
Sales Results - September 2015 - European Union 28 - GM Summary By Brand
| Brand | September 2015 / September 2014 | September 2015 | September 2014 | YTD 2015 / YTD 2014 | YTD 2015 | YTD 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM Group Total | +5.8% | 97,689 | 92,314 | +1.4% | 716,306 | 706,179 |
| Opel/Vauxhall | +6.4% | 97,579 | 91,696 | +6.4% | 713,596 | 670,965 |
| Chevrolet | -81.3% | 110 | 587 | -93.1% | 2,414 | 35,004 |
| Other GM | -100% | 0 | 31 | +41% | 296 | 210 |
Sales Results - September 2015 - European Union + EFTA - GM Summary By Brand
| Brand | September 2015 / September 2014 | September 2015 | September 2014 | YTD 2015 / YTD 2014 | YTD 2015 | YTD 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM Group Total | +5.9% | 99,180 | 93,619 | +1.2% | 729,829 | 721,173 |
| Opel/Vauxhall | +6.5% | 98,907 | 92,881 | +6.3% | 726,675 | 683,610 |
| Chevrolet | -68% | 224 | 701 | -92.7% | 2,721 | 37,221 |
| Other GM | +32.4% | 49 | 37 | +26.6% | 433 | 342 |
Sales Results - September 2015 - European Union 15 + EFTA - GM Summary By Brand
| Brand | September 2015 / September 2014 | September 2015 | September 2014 | YTD 2015 / YTD 2014 | YTD 2015 | YTD 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GM Group Total | +6.3% | 94,432 | 88,823 | +0.9% | 677,933 | 671,945 |
| Opel/Vauxhall | +6.8% | 94,173 | 88,193 | +5.6% | 675,486 | 639,372 |
| Chevrolet | -64.7% | 210 | 595 | -93.7% | 2,028 | 32,248 |
| Other GM | +40% | 49 | 35 | +28.9% | 419 | 325 |
Editor’s note: ACEA, the agency that reports automotive registrations in Europe, releases sales results roughly 45 days after the end of the month in question.
Comments
I’m a little confused here. Your previous post (08th October) regarding September sales stated 114,100 units sold. Perhaps the revised 97,579 sales exclude commercial vehicles, ie. Combo, Vivaro and Movano.
That said, it is high time GM Europe began differentiating between Opel and Vauxhall sales figures, by reporting them separately.
The reality is that GM sales across 36 continental European countries (including Eire) actually remained virtually flat year on year. The revised increase over Sept 2014 amounts to 5,883 units. Of these, Vauxhall (United Kingdom only) sales increased by 4,955 units, 85% of the total GM European year on year increase! And this is typical of the picture every month. Please give credit where it’s due GM.
Meanwhile in the same period, Opel sales grew by only 928 units, or an average of 27 vehicles per country. And whilst you can attribute some negative influence by the withdrawal of Opel from Russia, 1,340 units were sold there in September, including all models aside from Karl.
The Vauxhall brand is driving the the GME recovery and return to profitability … let’s not forget that!
rocketman – spot on, 100% agree with you
Rocketman — you are correct, the numbers from this report
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/10/opel-sales-grow-4-7-percent-to-114100-vehicles-in-september-2015/
… do not contain LCV sales.
Agreed Rocketman. Now don’t get me wrong, I want Opel to do well and grow in its markets as much as anything because this is necessary for Vauxhall to have a good range. But the days when Vauxhall was to be ignored as the also-ran junior partner to Opel should be long gone. The brand is strong in the UK and growing, it could easily be used in the other European RHD markets too. The constant use of the ”Opel-Vauxhall” term by GM seems unfair to Vauxhall, unless it is being done to make the Opel situation seem less static. Put it this way, GM don’t talk about ‘Opel-Buick’ or ‘Chevrolet-Buick’. Brands share platforms and sometimes models, but it doesn’t meant it is a good thing for them to have their identity marginalised.
Just on time, all the Vauxhall-loving britts with an inferiority complex will try to prove how important Vauxhall is to GM and to Opel.
Where would Vauxhall be without German (Opel) engineering backed by GM (American) money? Riddle me that. Riddle me that.
Riddle you that …
More like where would GM Europe be without Vauxhall? Answer … DEFUNCT. No volume automaker in Europe can survive long-term on less than 1m sales a year. Vauxhall alone accounts for circa 43% of total GME sales.
The UK (Vauxhall only) is GM’s fourth largest global market after China, USA and Brazil. Vauxhall is also GM’s third biggest selling brand in a single market, after Chevrolet and Buick.
It’s a global business – GME vehicles are engineered in Germany, UK, South Korea and yes, even in the good ol’ US (Ampera) with a little help from the US Treasury and Chapter 11 over the last few years! Russelsheim is home to engineers from all over the world … not just Germany.
GME vehicles are variously sourced from Germany, Spain, UK, Poland, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, France, USA, and even Australia (in the case of the UK only VXR8 GTS).
Here in the UK we’re proud of GM, we’re proud of Opel and yeah – we’re especially proud of the Vauxhall brand. Vauxhall is the UK’s oldest car manufacturer and traces its roots back to 1857, becoming Vauxhall Ironworks in 1897, so a bit of history there then. Cadillac didn’t arrive until 1902.
“Vauxhall alone accounts for circa 43% of total GME sales”
That’s simply nonsense and you know that!
Maybe this is true for some months but not for the cumulated sales in a year.
There is no Vauxhall seperate to Opel. This is one company with different brands. The only difference between Opel and Vauxhall is the brand and that’s it.
We can argue all day long about who would be defunct first, but it would be very difficult for Vauxhall to survive without GM. You could make the argument that without GM, Vauxhall would be “free” to expand to other markets beyond the U.K, but history has shown us that venturing outside of the home market hasn’t gone well for U.K. automakers… unless they are owned by someone else — like Vauxhall, Mini, Range Rover, Jaguar, etc.
My point is that there are considerable amount of comments on GM Authority about how much Vauxhall is contributing to GM Europe. Some of these comments go so far as to suggest that Vauxhall is “saving” Opel/GM Europe. I’m suggesting a more level-headed and balanced outlook: Vauxhall desperately needs Opel, while GM Europe can not afford not to be in the U.K. market. Can we agree to that?
Also, the size of the U.K. market varies month to month as The German states, with the 43 percent mark being a single-month record.
These Vauxhall guys always forget that if there were no Vauxhall, Opel would be market in UK as Opel and also sell cars. If that would be the case Opel would sell far less cars than Vauxhall does but you can be sure that the Ellesmere Port and Luton plants wouldn’t exist. These two plants only exist because of the historical heritage wich is tied to the Vauxhall brand and the fact that Vauxhall wasn’t liquidated.
Vauxhall is completely depending on the engineering and the decisions made in Rüsselsheim and does not develop cars for its own. Vauxhall is a name (brand) as Opel or Astra, Corsa, Insignia are only names. A name/brand is not the same as the organization of the company behind it. Vauxhall is as independant as Opel Italia or Opel Spain is. The only difference is that the company behind Opel in UK doesn’t use the Opel name but the Vauxhall name.
Up until 1980, Opel was marketed in the UK but only accounted for 1 in 20 of GM sales.
At this time in the UK, Opels were also available with a much broader range of trim spec than their Vauxhall equivalents, eg. Opel Senator & Monza were available as 2.5, 2.8 and 3.0E. The Vauxhall Royale was only available as a 2.8. Similarly with Rekord/Carlton and Commodore/Viceroy.
In 1980, the Vauxhall brand was withdrawn from Europe, despite having always sold strongly across Scandinavia, Benelux, Portugal and Italy. Look at the historical archives by country for the 1960’s and ’70’s in ‘bestsellingcars.com’.
In 2014 GM Europe shifted 880,974 units, of which Vauxhall-badged models accounted for 301,796 (34.3%). GME needs to shift around 925,000 units p/a to break even and 1,000,000 would ensure profitability and sustainability. As things are going at present, GME should hit the 900+k target during 2016 and should ideally break even. But this is still a very long way from the heady mid 1990’s when GME sold circa 1.5m units, and Corsa B was the world’s biggest selling vehicle under its various Opel, Vauxhall, Buick, Chevrolet and Holden guises.
The simple facts are that Vauxhall could never survive as a stand alone entity and that equally Opel (579k units in 2014) would either need to find a partner such as PSA or shut the doors and go home. Both brands need each other. Following the fall-out from Chapter 11 in 2009, Vauxhall customers rallied, helping the brand to retain its No.2 position in the UK, and since 2011 it has continued to grow sales ahead of the UK curve. Sadly across Europe Mainland, Opel became seriously damaged goods and consumers voted with their feet. Repairing that damage will take a long time – 8 to 10 years at least.
As for Luton and Ellesmere Port, they are both amongst GM’s top 10 globally efficient plants, hence securing the contracts for Vivaro and Astra ahead of Bochum and Eisenach.
Opel/Vauxhall never sold less then 1 Million cars a year within the last decades. I am not talking about the EU+EFTA sales but the entire sales of cars under the brand Opel/Vauxhall including commercial vehicles.
Herr German this discussion from the start has been centered around greater Europe and has never mentioned South Africa, Uruguay, Australia or New Zealand, or for that matter China (in all of which Opel is or until recently has been marketed).
These countries are separate GM entities and profit/loss centres, not directly contributing to GME, particularly in the case of South Africa where Corsa and Astra are manufactured locally and sold under the Opel brand.
What would be good to understand though is how much GME receives as licensing fees for its IP from GM manufacturing entities in China, USA, Canada, South America, South Africa and South Korea. I suspect the answer is very little or none at all, with GM Corp. assuming all IP as belonging to group.
I am not talking about countries outside greater Europa such as South Africa or China (btw Opel has finished selling cars in China). I am talking about all countries in Europa including Russia, Turkey, Eastern and South Eastern Europe which are not listed in the ACEA statistics.
If you want to have numbers look at the Opel facts and figures 2014 sheet.
Opel/Vauxhall sold 1,076 Million units in 2014 after 1,04 Million Units in 2013 in “greater Europe” including Russia and Turkey and including Commercial vehicles.