Photo: Opel
Opel has announced sweeping changes which it hopes will influence the company's bottom line in the next two to three years. It seems General Motors has decided to end Opel's two-decade stay in the Chinese market and is instead focusing on what Europe and particularly Germany can do to secure the profitability that has eluded them for a decade.
Opel will make a sizable €245 million investment in its home factory of Ruesselsheim, where it plans to produce a model for the Buick brand to sell to its US consumers sometime in the second half of the current decade.
Speculation about what this model could be should include the long-rumored Buick version of the Cascada convertible, the Adam city car which has also been discussed byAmerican executives, new versions of the Insignia and the compact SUV that's coming to replace the Opel Antara (similar to the Chevrolet Captiva).
Russelsheim will also get "two additional vehicles later in the decade" that will be "decided by the Opel Supervisory Board at its meeting this week", besides the four Insignia variants and the Zafira Tourer.
Opel has also announced it's pulling out of China, after more than two decades. The German company started selling cars there in 1993 but never gained traction with local consumers. Last year, Opel's 22 dealerships sold 4,365 vehicles, a drop in the ocean compared to the 810, 000 cars sold by 650 Buick dealers there. Amusingly, the most popular Buicks in China are actually based on the Astra and Insignia.
"This is a long overdue decision,” said Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann. “It would have cost hundreds of millions of euros to raise awareness of the Opel brand and to expand the distribution network. Buick, however, is one of the market leaders in China and we plan to intensify our future collaboration, with several projects currently under examination."
Speculation about what this model could be should include the long-rumored Buick version of the Cascada convertible, the Adam city car which has also been discussed byAmerican executives, new versions of the Insignia and the compact SUV that's coming to replace the Opel Antara (similar to the Chevrolet Captiva).
Russelsheim will also get "two additional vehicles later in the decade" that will be "decided by the Opel Supervisory Board at its meeting this week", besides the four Insignia variants and the Zafira Tourer.
Opel has also announced it's pulling out of China, after more than two decades. The German company started selling cars there in 1993 but never gained traction with local consumers. Last year, Opel's 22 dealerships sold 4,365 vehicles, a drop in the ocean compared to the 810, 000 cars sold by 650 Buick dealers there. Amusingly, the most popular Buicks in China are actually based on the Astra and Insignia.
"This is a long overdue decision,” said Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann. “It would have cost hundreds of millions of euros to raise awareness of the Opel brand and to expand the distribution network. Buick, however, is one of the market leaders in China and we plan to intensify our future collaboration, with several projects currently under examination."
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