Opel will focus on crossovers as part of its product push to boost sales and return to profit. “We will move more into crossover segments in general, because that’s where customers are going,” Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said on the sidelines of the Geneva auto show last month.
General Motors’ money-losing European unit, Opel, may break even before its 2016 deadline, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an interview with the brand’s CEO, Karl-Thomas Neumann.
General Motors’ Opel unit said today it will build a Buick model for the United States at its plant in Ruesselsheim, Germany.
For the past few years, General Motors executives have fought a valiant battle in Europe on Opel’s behalf: insisting that the brand was a premium marque above mainstream Chevrolet, while fending off persistent rumors of Opel’s sale or demise.
That battle is over. Opel is back to being GM’s mainstream brand in Europe with the decision late last year to remove Chevrolet from the market, and Opel has the full backing of GM’s new leadership. Now comes the hard part: revitalizing a faded brand that had lost market share for 14 straight years, before a slight uptick last year.
General Motors’ Opel division said today it agreed with labor leaders on the outline of a severance deal for workers at the troubled Bochum plant, which is due to stop making cars at the end of 2014.
