Opel and Vauxhall both have a future under France’s PSA Groupe, which obtained both brands and General Motors’ European operations in this year’s sale. Now, PSA revealed Opel and Vauxhall’s future strategy, and Opel will become quite French in the process.
All Opels will move to a PSA platform and PSA will reduce the number of platforms for the brand’s cars from nine to just two. The automaker spelled out a similar strategy for powertrains with a reduction 10 combinations to four in the future. Platform and powertrain streamlining will ideally create synergies of €1.1 billion by 2020. PSA will also push forward with Opel’s electrification plans and wants its entire lineup to feature some sort of electrified powertrain by 2024.
Speaking of 2020, the plan calls for Opel’s return to profitability by the same date with a 2 percent operating margin. In 2026, PSA targets a 6 percent operating margin. Meanwhile, PSA will reduce Opel vehicle deliveries to 800,000 units. Opel delivered over 1 million cars last year but still lost $257 million.
Finally, PSA will take Opel into new unnamed markets. Specifically, Opel will enter more than 20 new export markets by 2022. PSA CEO Carlos Tavares previously said Opel holds a unique benefit for its business since many consumers would not consider a French car. The German marque is, inherently, more appealing to some consumers—even if the future cars hide their French accents.
Most importantly, PSA will avoid any forced redundancies, which is good news for Opel and Vauxhall workers.
The sweepstakes closes on December 22nd and the drawing will take place on December 28th.
At a time of year when luxury car ATP usually rises.
Sales decreased 5.6 percent to 16,670 units during the first ten months of 2024.
Specifically critical minerals supply chain development.
Scheduled for a Spring 2025 launch.
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It looks like GM's legacy in the UK and EU will disappear sooner than many predicted, with the (still) new Insignia - and presumably the incoming Holden Commodore with it - predicted to disappear as soon as 2020. At a guess, the current generation Astra will disappear with it, whilst the last Mokka X will almost certainly roll off the tracks at Eisenach within the next 18 months.
The investment in Vauxhall's future looks positive - from both a manufacturing and brand perspective. Reported elsewhere that the Luton plant could become the centre for PSA Groupe large CV production under the Citroen, Peugeot, Opel and Vauxhall brand, whilst Ellesmere Port's product portfolio will grow to take on additional Opel, Peugeot, Citroen and possibly DS production. And also suggested that for the first time since the 1980s, the Vauxhall brand will reappear overseas - possibly in Commonwealth countries where Opel does not currently have a presence. Indeed, Tavares was so impressed by Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port operation, he committed to investing in it within 24 hours of his first visit to the plant.
I like what PSA are doing, insofar as they're addressing the longstanding issues at what was Opel Group, whilst building on Opel and Vauxhall's strengths. Now... why couldn't GM's Opel Group management have done the same a decade or so ago?
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The door is open for GM to return with Chevrolet mass market cars in 2020. The competion with Opel will then no longer be an internal competition against another branch of the same corporation.
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What makes you think "that for the first time since the 1980s, the Vauxhall brand will reappear overseas"? I have listend to the press conference but have not heard a word in that direction. Although I admit that I may have missed it for being distracted for moment.
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Mokka in Eisenach? Do they really build the litte SUV there?
Anyway, a new SUV was announced to be produced in Eisenach based on a PSA architecture.
I will say it one last time: GM made a huge mistake selling Opel and, like PSA and Ford, could have done their own cost cutting.
Will German consumers prize what amounts to a French car with German tags? My bet is hence the planned production cuts.
Flipping a new, award winning line up so fast will further damage Opel's reputation. Will the new Astra be an improvement? The new Insignia will definatly be a step backwards. The $1 billion savings by 2020 seems remarkably small given the scale and effort.
PSA wants Opel for global markets. In China and the US French Astra will be seen as German. Meanwhile, Opel will loose market share, become niche in Germany, and earn a tiny yearly profit as Seat is supposed to do for VW.
Poor Opel...
To me it appears that GM sold the rights to kill Opel to the French.
This was like trading an NBA player to another team disorder they could waive him to dump the salary and cut the losses.
None the last time the French have made a car of value and desire globally that did not include an Italian involved?
Delahaye? Talbot-Lago? Delage?
PSA is not going to make any major global impact here.
GM on the other hand with their advancement in the EV field may just give the the products to move back to Europe with their ever increasing laws forcing mfg to EV products.
Scott, nice effort at spin!
GM could have successfully moved higher volumes of Evs via Vauxhall and Opel. Chevrolet is far too damaged in Europe and known for only cheap cars plus Camaro and Tahoe.
You speak as if the EU has enacted draconian emission standards. Ford will make money under these rules. Furthermore, the Democrats will enact similar emission rules when they retake the White House. China is also growing concerned about pollution.
Those EU regulations that GM ran from will eventually, more sooner than later, go global. GM will be poorly positioned for not developing now like virtually EVERY other automaker. Mark Guess said the transition to EV will depend on customer response which so far is tepid.
Little Mazda and MG aren't leaving the EU and can afford the r&d. GM can, too. The brand recognition of Opel and Vauxhall (#2 brand in the UK) made 3 billion in pension liability worth it given that GM is still stuck paying for them per sale terms.
Nice fantasy here.
French automakers have done nothing a foundered with failure long be for most other make.
The Euro auto market is in negative growth and taking sales from others is tough. The sale from Opel will have a small impact but as they change the brand it could easily go negitive.
This reeks of a privately owned British Leyand.
To this point VW is the only one who has made volume work as the others have found only being more efficient and moving out into more advanced tech is going to work.
PSA needs to worry more about the lack of presents in China vs Europe.
@Stephen re "Chevrolet is far too damaged in Europe and known for only cheap cars plus Camaro and Tahoe."
I believe, that when GM returns to Europe's mass market with new Chevrolet cars, much of that will be forgotten. A good move might be to start presenting Chevrolet as the brand of the Corvette and all those pickups. Corvette's successful participation in this iconic race, the 24 hours of Le Mans, could be exploited.
Back in 2004 (or when that happened) it was a serious error to introduce Chevrolet by just putting a differend brand label on cars which were known as Daewoo. This should have been done only for new models, i.e. when the Daewoo Lacetti/Nubira was replaced by the D2-based Chevrolet Cruze, or when the Daewoo Matiz was replaced by the Chevrolet Spark, the Daewoo Epica by the Chevrolet Malibu. This would have avoided the impression, that Chevrolet is just another name for Daewoo.
Crazy idea...
GM might be wise to reaproach Europe with Buick. Due to China plus being the 4th most popular premium Brand in the US, Buick is ready for true global growth. With the loss of Opel, Buick in EU would offer GM more scale on product like the next Encore, Excelle/Verano/C-segment, and Regal plus EV offerings.
For Europe Buick is an unknown, untainted brand with a high quality product. It is more upmarket than Chevrolet without stepping on Cadillac. It could easily challenge both Ford and VW.
Of course, as with Opel recently, certain Chevrolet products could either be rebadged or reskinned for the EU market as needed.
Also, GM may want to consider Buick for its former Indian operations as India is too great an opportunity for the General to pass on. In many markets like Europe and India Chevrolet is simply too damaged and Buick offers another pathway in not to mention higher margins.
being from Europe, I fully agree with your point of view.
I see the "green religion" that has infected Europe is swallowing yet another victim. No matter, Opel and Vauxhall were little more than mediocre players in the European market anyways.
So how many more jobs and sky high utilities and living cost will have to be forced on the citizens of the euro union before reality sets in and causes a revolt?
Electric cars are a pipe dream. There is still little to no infrastructure for it, nevermind that it's about as inefficient a way to power cars as can be thought of. It's not so much the electrification of the automobile that's stupid. It's the fact that there is no good reason to. You still require fossil fueled plants or hyrdro-electric powerplants to make the electricity. Even though the only true environmentally safe and efficient way to provide electricity necessary for this revolutionary event is through nuclear power.
Yet Europe in it's environmental fanatism, is too busy shutting down every nuclear plant they can. Damn the cheap, efficient, and nearly inexhaustible energy it can provide.
Central points as I see it:
• no plant closures were announced, they were explicitly rejected in favor of making the plants more efficient;
• no mass dismissals, instead small scale measures to reduced wage costs, e.g. by voluntary departures or cutting the work week from 40 hours to the 35 hours as stipulated by the collective contract for the whole metal industry; this would certainly be coupled with cutting the wage accordingly, and may even be conditioned on forced overtime without pay. But when acted upon person by person, it will make less noise.
These two points were essential for calming down the fears of the Opel workers and the general public, which had been stirred by the usual talking heads who now even complained and demanded that plant closures shuold be done in the future.
Well, this is not excluded, but it was important to start the recovery plan with a positive note instead of announcing catastrophies.
Other important points:
• opening 20 more countries for exports (limited to cars which do not use GM licenced technology); Argentina was named (currently the only South American country where Opel sells is Chile, with only a few hundred units per year).
• reducing imports from Korea, i.e. imports of Mokka and Karl. A successor without GM technology was implicitely announced for 2019 (to be produced in Eisenach).
• increase LCV sales by 25% in the coming years. The next PSA-Opel cooperation project (which was started many years ago, in 2012 or so) is a replacement of the small light commercial vehicle, the Opel/Vauxhall Combo (whose current version is being sourced from FCA-Tofaş in Bursa, Turkey. The new one will be produced in Vigo on the Atlantic coast of Galicia (Spain), an old PSA factory, where the current Citroën and Peugeot siblings are being produced today.
The future of the Vivaro and Movano which are being produced in cooperation with Renault was not mentioned.
Neither mentioned was the Opel/Vauxhall Ampera-e, the twin of the Chevrolet Bolt. I assume the possibility that Opel, who have already closed the order book for new Ampera-e orders, might cancel all orders which they have received and currently can't or won't fulfill.
The big SUV to be produced in Rüsselsheim, announced years ago as a "second flagship" besides the Insignia, would come based not as Opel version of a Buick Enclave or Cadillac XT4, but rather an opelized DS 7...
We'll see in how far this optimistically presented plan will succeed. A plan is a plan, and a plan can fail by colliding with outside forces, or by one's own inablity.
I forgot to mention the assurance that the Opel technical development center in Rüsselsheim would continue, that all Opel/Vauxhall branded cars would be developed there, and that it would function as competence center for several specialities within the PSA group.
Germany sold 3.35 Million cars in 2016; this means in 2025 when they sell only electric cars will need the infrastructure of having 450-550,000 recharging stalls spread out across the country as well as generating the electricity needed to recharge 3.35 Million electric cars and this number will double every year until almost every vehicle driven for a decade when almost all of the 45 Million vehicles driven are electric. This is what every country that signed the Paris Accord will be doing between now and 2025; build infrastructure for recharging and electricity output.
That's only if Germany and the other signatories live up their obligations under the Paris Accords, are capable of constructing new, additional power stations, and due so in a timely manner.
Building charging infrastructure will bolster the German economy because it will be a well-coordinated private/public partnership with crony capitalism without welfare for VW or Bosch. Other nations will take on terrible national debt.
At some point Europe is going to implode.
You can not have that many countries with that many cultures Co exist for a long time before disputes erupt.
Then how long is it going to be the burden of carrying the social program countries drag down the financially stable countries?
We have already seen crack develope and when not if times get tough this thing breaks apparat.
The people paying for this in England have had enough and Getmany is moving that way.
Then the imagination issues are also becoming a bigger problem to this type of government.
Add Scotland and the potential break up in Spain and you will see economic chaos happen.
Then again since when has France been relevant in the Auto industry globally.
Nice Fox Hannity fantasy!
Should the EU "implode" as you suggest then Europe would simply revert back to the EC and once again be a free trading block minus political endeavors.
Regardless, while the EU needs reform, it is nonetheless far from collapse given that the regional cultural commonalities outweigh differences plus the geopolitical need to counter Russian encroachments.
At the end of the day Scotland stayed two years ago and recent polling indicates similar result if a vote were held today. No doubt we are witnessing a wave of populist resentment with Spain, Venice, Trump but it won't last once real life offers gives citizens something important like war or hunger to worry about.
France is already a major auto player via Renault and the Alliance. Let us remember that it was Carlos Goshen at Renault who revived Nissan and, in the process, built an Alliance using both French technology and business savvy that's now larger than GM even with its various Chinese partnerships.
Let us also remember than Peugeot produces quality product, better than Ford, and has recently won a European car of the Year. France, The UK and even US all trail Germany and Japan on reputation.
It is a matter of time. Just watch.
As for Peugeot and Car of the year. It is no better than the car of the year here it is political and fixed.
Oh ya Old Carlos. The luster is off his star as everything started to stall under him. He is no longer even in the conversation anymore.
Funny how you bring up The Alliance........ oh not that one lol!
As for Trump this has nothing to do with him. Did I bring him up? We are speaking of Europe.
The EU could not counter Russia with out our backing that was decreased over the last 8 years.
When this EU deal gets tested due to failing economics it will be like a run on the last life boat on the Titanic.
As for the thumb don’t waste your time on the games fudging the numbers as I don’t care,
One thing for certain is the history of Europe repeats often over history and it will again with a mix of greed, economics and religious radicalism's.
Not sure if you are a student of history but you may need to brush up on it to see how it repeats over and over.
I'm not a fan of either Peugeot to Citroen, nor am I a fan of French cars in general... and I'm certainly not a fan of the EU. Heck, I waited half a life time to vote to leave it!
But if there's anyone who can deliver a better future for Opel and Vauxhall, it's surely Tavares. When he arrived at PSA Groupe, the business was very much parked up outside The Last Chance Saloon. I predicted - wrongly as it happens - that Tavares' appointment was simply about securing a scapegoat, before the business was acquired by the Chinese. And boy, I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Despite not being a fanboi for any PSA brand, what Tavares has personally achieved and what PSA has achieved on his watch, is truly impressive. And I have to admit too that some, perhaps much, of the product is actually very, very good too, possibly because PSA is now being run as a business and not as an institution.
Here's hoping to see Opel and Vauxhall restored to profitability, now much of the incumbent GM era German management is out of the way.
And here's hoping we don't have to wait too much longer to see GM's return to the UK and European market. As electric cars become increasingly mainstream - driven not by rules, regulations, accords, junk science or climate alarmism, but by market demand and simple economics - there's certainly a place for future GM product in the UK and European markets.
I hope you are right but I think the market driven by the rules will be required to make the Electric thing to work at this point.
Even then the going will be thought as electric will be a tough sell and even then low profit.
We have not seen the last automaker to fail and the key for about all other than VW Is to max the return on investment and keep the stock up.
The bigger is better no longer the key. VW gets away with it because of their diversity with high end models they bought up. It acts kind of like a cash cow like the trucks do for American brands.
But even it has its limits hence BMW working with others to cut cost and sharing product.
I figure the French government will be the safety net foR PSA as long as they can afford it.
The Key for PSA is growth to match size and that will be China. The EV models have to do well not only at home but China and give them market share. If not the size will become a boat anchor.
I am not sure hoe a China will adapt as they place much on auto image and they hold little in China.
Also I am not sure who they will or are partnered with in China.
The return in not as good in China but the growth is in matched.
The problem there for all is If the collapse economically. It would affect all of us.
When economics turn bad it often leads to desperate measures.
China will be an important component in PSA's future success. At present, PSA is partnered with Dongfeng in China for the production of Citroen and Peugeot branded models and with Chongqing for the production of DS product. This year's sales should be c.700k units and China is PSA's largest single market. Dongfeng also of course owns 14% of Groupe PSA.
It will be interesting to see what production arrangements are put in place for Opel / Vauxhall models in China, given the Chinese government still has a significant input into investment decisions.
The other potential opportunity is surely India, which in the medium term should offer even greater growth prospects than China. Unsure what arrangements PSA has in India, but currently group sales in what will become the world's most populous country are negligible.
The UK may well end up in NAFTA and be a strong market for GM.
Britain never belonged in the EU. Being an island disconnected from the continent and an Empire that birthed our English speaking world makes the United Kingdom a European outliner better matched with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, India, as well as the rest of the Commonwealth.
Reading comprehension is important! Trump was only mentioned in the context of the wave of populism/nationalism sweeping the EU and West that you mentioned.
I am, in fact, a student of history. For most the the last two thousand years Europe has been ruled by one empire or another. First it was Rome ruling the entire continent. Later smaller empires like the Franks, Austria-Hungary, the Ottomans, and the Russians ruled large chunks of territory and by doing so prevented ethnic violence while maintaining a regional balance of power.
Today, that Empire is the European Union. Europe has always had small, regional uprisings and nationalist urges but they have always been put down by the central authority which in this case is Brussels.
The EU is the continent's best chance at peace. It is when Europe is dividend amoungt competing powers that war (Franco-Prussian, World War I, World War II) breaks out. As you said those who do not learn from history are indeed doomed to repeat it.
The EU will evolve in response to member state needs because it wants to survive. My bet is that the EU will always be more confederation than federation and that instead of political objectives it's primary focus will be more similar to that of the EC free trade zone that preceded it.
It works if times are good. Times go bad it will collapse and others will move in to take advantage of the Chaos.
Then the ever present Muslim issues are In play. They are not new but with greater numbers there will be even greater conflict.
The EU is like a car club or many othe clubs it works for a while but in the end often it collapses.
Actually, Europe has not "been ruled by one empire or another" for many many centuries. The Germanic tribes which had smashed the (West-) Roman Empire were uncapable to unite under one leadership. And at least since England began to build a colonial empire, it worked according to the rule which George F. Kennan (1904-2005) spelled out in the first of his talks in 1951 published as "American Diplomacy 1900 - 1950":
»We can see that our security has been dependent throughout much of our history on the position of Britain; that Canada, in particular, has been a useful and indispensable hostage to good relations between our country and the British Empire; and that Britain’s position, in turn, has depended on the maintenance of a balance of power on the European Continent. Thus it was essential to us, as it was to Britain, that no single Continental land power should come to dominate the entire Eurasian land mass.«
So, after the first half of the 20th century has seen so much destrucion and bloodshed, the outcome of it turned the USA into the dominant power in Europe, and under the US umbrella, and under condition of a sever weakening of the foremost continental power, Germany, could unite to create an "ever closer union".
But a superstate the EU is not, and can't become one without resorting to violence again, either between the rulers of the various countries, or by a revolution which does away with the jealousies.
Thumbs down? That isn't played as a game but is the readers response to your comments.
Religious bigotry and xenophobia has no place on a auto blog. Just because you fear Muslims doesn't mean that, as backed up by polling, a majority of Europeans do.
Brexit anger was directed not at "Muslim" migrants but, instead, Eastern Europeans. A plurality of Muslim Brits supported Brexit themselves.
Another Hannity fantacy!
Religious bigotry and xenophobia has no place on a auto blog. Just because you fear Muslims doesn't mean that, as backed up by polling, a majority of Europeans do.
Brexit anger was directed not at "Muslim" migrants but, instead, Eastern Europeans. A plurality of Muslim Brits supported Brexit themselves.