Opel cuts will not slow launch

"It's business as usual," Opel spokeswoman Michelle Lang says of the Australian launch schedule, due some time in the second half of this year. It is the Opel business itself that is worrying parent company General Motors.

Opel lost almost $750 million last year on sales of 1.2 million vehicles. And recent history isn't any better - the German-based company has lost around $15 billion in the past 12 years.

Lang is aware of the grilling the media gave GM vice-president Steve Girsky over Opel's future at the Geneva Motor Show last week but says is has no impact on the Australian start-up. "It is a non-issue for us," she notes. "We report to Germany and it is all systems go."

GM's most recent move to prop up the ailing Opel brand came last month with a $380 million (304 million euro) spend on a seven per cent stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen. The alliance partners have agreed to share vehicle platforms and engines and use economies of scale by jointly buying commodities and services.

They project $2 billion in annual savings within five years from the alliance but analysts say it doesn't address the issue of overcapacity by either company. And it is that oversupply - too many cars, too few buyers - which is affecting all European carmakers.

It was a point Girsky noted at the Geneva Motor Show last week, admitting the revival of Opel would have to occur in a depressed European market. "We're not sitting here hoping the market is going to get better," he told journalists, adding that "Any talk of GM not being committed to Europe should be off the table."

At the same time, Mr. Girsky wouldn't rule out plant closures as part of the restructuring plan GM is now thrashing out with European unions. The British plant at Ellesmere Port and Bochum in Germany are the two oldest and most inefficient sites but political pressure has stopped Opel from closing them.

WHO IS OPEL?

The Opel car company is owned by General Motors and based in Russelsheim, Germany. It has 11 factories and a workforce of around 39,000 that produced around 1.2 million cars last year.It has traditionally competed against Volkswagen in European markets and is responsible for developing small and mid-sized platforms for the global GM family.

The company was founded by Adam Opel in 1862 and has been building cars since 1899. GM took a majority stake in 1929 and bought Opel outright in 1931.

Opel was nearly sold off in the aftermath of the GFC and GM's bankruptcy in 2009 but concerns over proprietry technology led GM to hang on to the business and in 2010 it announced it will spend around $15 billion over the next five years as part of its strategy to restore the company to profit..

LAUNCH MODELS

The well-recognised and well-regarded Astra nameplate will spearhead Opel's Australian launch in the second half of this year. Holden has already done the hard work to establish the model, having sold Opel-derived Astras from 1996 to 2009, when it launched the Holden Cruze.

Opel Australia plans to have wagon and three-door and five-door hatch variants of the Astra, topped by the performance-oriented OPC version. The range will also include the Corsa light car and Insignia medium car. Pricing hasn't been announced but Carsguide expects it to be comparable to similar-spec models from Volkswagen, so Polo, Golf and Insignia.