Opel revokes its 15k by 2015 target

Just two days after the boss of Opel announced the company's ambitious sales target for Australia, executives in Germany have backpedaled on the figure.

Karl-Freiedrich Stracke told Australian media at the Frankfurt motor show: "It's 15,000 that we start from, and then we want to grow from there," referring to annual sales it plans to reach by the end of its third year.

But two days later Opel's executive director of international operations, Michael Klaus told the same group of journalists:

"Whatever was quoted should not be seen as a number which we need in order to make… profitability. I would see it more as a stretch target given to us by our CEO.

"We certainly acknowledge and respect this, but what's more important in my personal view than discussing the number is that we have a good strategy, a good launch, a good business proposition for our retail partners.

"That is what we are going to develop over the next months," Klaus said, adding: "We are totally committed, we are excited about the opportunity in Australia."

Opel will launch in Australia in October next year at the Sydney motor show with three models: the Corsa city-car, Astra small hatch and wagon, and the Insignia midsize sedan and wagon.

"We have a lot of time to prepare for our launch in Australia," Klaus said.

"That certainly gives us an opportunity to get a feeling for the market."

Bill Mott, who will move from Opel in Germany to establish the brand in Australia, said the company was "not stepping away from the [15,000 by 2015] figure" but that it was dependent on a number of factors.

"Management was very clear, [and] gave us an objective to reach," he said.

"[But] that was contingent on two things … our ability to grow the awareness of the brand and establish the brand as we wish to … and also growing the [number of] models that we'll be introducing that will allow us to reach a longer term volume target."

Former Holden boss and vice president of international operations for General Motors Europe, Chris Gubbey, said: "To get to 15 [thousand] … wouldn't necessarily need massive model growth and a complete range, but it would definitely probably need more growth than where we are now.

"We're not just going pick up vehicles and add them to the range to chase a number. This has to be a sustainable business for us and our partners [dealers]."

Opel says its three-model range will give the brand coverage in 70 per cent of the passenger car market. But so far this year, the Light, Small and Medium car classes account for 45 per cent of the total new vehicle market in Australia, according to VFACTS data.

Opels have traditionally been badged as Holdens Down Under. The first Opel to be sold in Australia was the Calibra coupe between 1991 and 1997 as a Holden. Other Opel built cars followed including the Barina (Corsa), Astra, Vectra and Zafira. The European models were eventually phased out as Holden switched to cheaper rebadged Korean cars from GM Daewoo.

Three generations of Opel Astra were sold in Australia between 1995 and 2009. The 'Astras' sold between 1984 and 1989 were actually rebadged Nissan Pulsars.

The best year on record for a Holden-badged Opel Astra was 2005, when 33,070 were sold. That figure would rank the Astra among the top five selling passenger cars in Australia today.

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