Opel could export in 2018

While General Motors foreshadows even more cuts to its global organisation, the new boss-in-waiting of Opel, Carlos Tavares, says it could stage a renewed export drive outside Europe as soon as 2018.

Under the deal completed on the eve of the Geneva motor show, Opel and its British division Vauxhall cannot export any of its vehicles that include GM intellectual property into markets where the US car-maker is already present.

However, the new Crossland X and Grandland X SUVs that launch this year are based on PSA architectures and therefore exempt from the restriction. The next-generation Opel Combo van that launches in 2018 is also based on a PSA platform.

Once PSA completes the purchase of loss-making Opel, expected at the end of this year, those vehicles can be exported globally.

That’s unlike the GM D2XX architecture-based Astra that is sold in Australia as a Holden and the E2XX-based Insignia that will be sold from next year as a Commodore.

Tavares, the chief executive of PSA, is keen to export Opels to markets where PSA brands Peugeot and Citroen aren’t popular such as the USA. He also cited Latin America, the north of Africa and parts of Asia as potential targets for Opel.

As reported last week by motoring.com.au, he also believes Opel could return to Australia.

“As soon as we switch from the General Motors IP to the PSA IP we are free to go anywhere,” Tavares confirmed.

“For us it is a big opportunity,” he added. “If I am blessed with the fact I have an iconic German brand, an iconic British brand and iconic French brands my interest with all of these brands is to go overseas and make good business out of it.

“But we should not forget if you want to go overseas you need to be very cost competitive, you need to have the right specs and you need to make sure you have superb quality.”

With the annexation of Opel-Vauxhall, PSA will become the second biggest automotive group in Europe behind Volkswagen, something Tavares said was an asset for future survival and profitability.

“The obvious benefit is that we are adding almost one million cars volume to the two million cars volume we already have in Europe,” Tavares said.

“That is going to create a significant volume-scale effect for PSA and of course, because there is such a big difference in terms of profitability between PSA and Opel, we tend to think that the cost competitiveness of PSA is higher than Opel so if Opel starts to use the platforms, powertrains and systems of PSA they should see a significant improvement in their own profitability.

“So it is really a win-win between the two brands.”

Conversely, GM chief Mary Barra and the architect of the sale of Opel-Vauxhall, GM president Dan Ammann, have signalled that more cuts to the corporation globally could be coming.

Ammann’s declared emphatically to Australian press at last week’s Geneva motor show that Holden was safe, especially as GM has already taken the toughest decision to shut down local manufacturing.

Nevertheless, the cuts are likely to come from GM International, the division of which Holden is part, as well as North American cars, according to a chart shown to analysts by GM.

By diverting resources from those businesses, Automotive News reported, GM would free up more capital for more lucrative areas, including pick-ups and SUVs, autonomous vehicles, Cadillac, China and GM Financial, they said.

“There’s a little bit more work that we’re doing in the international markets,” Barra was quoted as saying by Automotive News.

“Our overall philosophy is that every country, every market segment has to earn its cost of capital.”