Opel could make Australian comeback as an EV brand

A change in the Australian government’s electric vehicle policy could eventually provide the catalyst for Opel to make a sensational return Down Under.

Opel recently announced a fresh market tilt in New Zealand, following legislation that promotes the uptake of green vehicles and punishes distributors of high-polluting models.

With EV policy becoming a more prevalent federal election issue in Australia, a senior executive from Stellantis – the parent company of Opel – told carsales that a local version of the New Zealand Clean Car Act could incentivise an Aussie encore for the German car-maker.

“We’ll continue to keep an eye of it, but obviously things need to change a fair bit more in Australia before we’d seriously consider something like that,” said Billy Hayes, Stellantis Asia Pacific senior vice-president for sales, marketing and regional operations.

“At the moment there’s no plan to launch Opel in Australia; you never say never but there’s currently no plan to launch Opel here in Australia.”

Opel has had a volatile history in Australia. Most recently under the ownership of General Motors, the German marque launched an assault on the local market before succumbing to pricing pressure and local competition just 12 months later in August 2013.

GM sold Opel-Vauxhall to the PSA Group in 2017, before it killed off Holden in February 2020. The German car-maker then embarked on launching in 20 new global markets by 2022, and never ruled out a return to Australia.

With Stellantis now at the helm, Opel has plans to offer electrified versions of every model it sells by 2024, before becoming purely an EV-maker by 2028.

While almost all Australian states now offer EV subsidies, Hayes said the shift in national EV policy in New Zealand convinced Opel executives to attempt a fresh sales tilt there.

“It’s an ideal time to launch Opel in New Zealand, given what’s going in the Clean Car Act – the Feebate Scheme – is coming up this year as an OEM program as well,” Hayes said.

“It was really ideal to launch Opel given the receptivity of the market to EVs.”

Stellantis as a parent company has adopted a more all-encompassing approach to vehicle production, according to Hayes. The company plans to offer more right-hand drive production of the vehicles it produces, which could add weight to Opel’s expansion plans.

“Right now when the vehicles go into development, we’re looking at right-hand drive and left-hand drive at the same time,” Hayes said of Stellantis as a whole.

“We’ve got some very, very important right-hand drive markets across the world.

“Every product that we’ve got coming out, regardless of the Stellantis brand – including Jeep – we’re looking at right-hand drive from the get-go.”

In Europe, Opel currently sells a range of models including the Corsa-e light hatch, the new Astra small hatch with plug-in hybrid power and the new Mokka small SUV that was developed alongside the Peugeot 2008, is available as an EV and replaces a model previously sold here as the Holden Trax.

There’s also the Opel Crossland and Grandland SUVs – the latter with PHEV power – and a wide range of commercial vans.

Opel reportedly also has plans to replace the Insignia – on which Holden’s swansong ZB Commodore was based – with an all-new medium SUV developed in tandem with the next Peugeot 3008/5008 and based on Stellantis’ new eVMP architecture, which can support both pure-electric and electrified petrol and diesel engines.

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