In 2015, When Opel was still under the control of General Motors, the automaker made the decision to pull the German brand out of Russia amid falling sales and a weakening ruble. It also pulled back on its Chevrolet efforts at the time, instead choosing to focus more on the premium space in Russia with Cadillac and the Corvette, Camaro and Tahoe.
But now some strength has returned to the Russian automotive market and mainstream automakers are looking to re-gain a foothold in the country. Opel, now under the control of France’s Groupe PSA, recently announced it would once again sell cars in Russia, starting with the Grandland X crossover and Zafira Life van next year.
The Grandland X for Russia will be built at Groupe PSA’s Kaluga plant, which already builds multiple models for its Peugeot and Citroen brands. The plant will also add the Vivaro work van to its roster next year. Groupe PSA says it has plans to add at least one new Opel model to the brand’s Russian lineup every year for next little while, as well, so a wider array of Opel cars and crossovers will be available to Russian consumers in the very near future.
“A significant increase of our profitable exports is one of the key pillars of our ‘PACE!’ company plan. We are making further progress in this area now with our comeback in Russia,” Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller said in a statement. “We will gradually increase our commitment in the country in the coming years. This includes offering a wider range of products.”
Opel Grandland X
Opel will also open 11 dealers around Russia to support the re-entry efforts, with stores major cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Groupe PSA is hoping to double the amount of Opel dealers in the country before the end of 2020 and will keep adding storefronts as the expansion continues.
Groupe PSA is currently in the process of transforming Opel’s business after purchasing the German brand, along with Vauxhall, from GM in 2017. In addition to expanding and improving its operations in existing markets, the French company is also looking to take Opel into more than 20 new export markets like Colombia and Ecuador. The hope is for Opel to generate more sales volume outside of Europe, where Groupe PSA already holds a strong share of the market thanks to its Peugeot, Citroen and DS brands.
Opel Insignia Sports Tourer
As we noted in a previous article, Opel managed to make nearly $1 billion in profit after being under Groupe PSA guidance for just one year, putting an end to decades of losses. Groupe PSA did this in part by by slimming down and simplifying its top-heavy corporate management structure and plans to continue the financial growth by leveraging its large European manufacturing footprint to support Opel and give it more up-to-date small car platforms.
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Source: Carscoops
Comments
The biggest problem about this is Opel and Buick have basically the same design language. Is Buick planning a new design direction for the future? If so, when could we expect to see it in production?
buick’s future is chevy. the encore gx is prime example.
Buick’s future is China.
If the Chinese demonstrate they really love / want “simulated wood grain paneling” on the sides of their Buick’s, there’s a good chance everybody is going to get “simulated wood grain paneling” on the sides of their Buick’s.
Very easy to tell Buick’s and Opels apart. If the vehicle is bigger than a bread box, It’s a Buick.
And some here were poopooing the idea of GM expanding its business presence in Russia. Clearly those individuals had no idea what they are talking about.
Only GM can’t figure out international markets while everybody else is expanding in those same markets. What a shame.
It should be noted that Opel returns to Russia only with cars built on PSA platforms. The Grandland X was developed in PSA-Opel cooperaiion since 2012 based on the agreement between GM and PSA back then (which was underpinned also by GM taking a 7% share in PSA, which GM sold after the chinese company Dongfeng entered in the PSA capital, together with the French state, in order to save PSA from bankruptcy.
The Zafira Life is the passenger car version of the new Zafira, which is no longer a Renault Trafiq clone, but one of Citroën Jumpy, Peugeot Expert or Toyota ProAce, but not built in the other siblings’ factory in Hordain and Lieu St. Amand, near Valenciennes in Northern France.
This limitation in Russia is based on the competition protection clauses agreed between PSA and GM, which stipulates in this respect
The D-SUV mentioned is the Opel Grandland.
So, the Opel Insignia or Astra are excluded from being sold in Russia.
GM conceded this:
this 3 year period ends in Summer of 2020
The above quotes are from the PSA “registration document” for 2016, which can be downloaded from this list at
https://www.groupe-psa.com/en/finance/publications/registration-document
A quite long section on the Opel takeover starts at about 143, the above at 1