The French car giant PSA (Peugeot, Citroën and DS) has given the green light to buy the European shares in GM (Opel and Vauxhall). It is expected that the acquisition will be announced today, Monday 6 March. The new PSA group will thus become Europe's second largest car manufacturer after the Volkswagen group. The two car giants will together produce 40% of all new cars in Europe, - 24% VW and 16% PSA.
Opel has been making losses for the past 16 years and has not been able to reverse the trend. It is a known fact that Opel's newer models are not attractive enough to maintain market shares from the golden 80s and early 90s.
One of Opel's historic slogans is “Look at Opel now!” Someone should really look at Opel now. Opel has lost its grip on their old, faithful customers.
PSA, on the other hand, is making solid profits and is very willing to invest. They have announced that they will make acquisitions up until 2020. The newspapers in France have written about worried trade unions. An incredible number of employees are affected. Opel and Vauxhall have a total of 35 employees, and PSA has 600 - the vast majority in Europe.
It is no longer the case that French cars are produced in France and German cars in Germany. Car factories are opening and closing all over Europe. At the end of 2014, Opel discontinued its production in the large Bochum plant. The purpose was to ensure continued operations at the Rüsselheim headquarters. PSA has given assurances to secure operations at Opel's factories.
There are many questions related to the acquisition. Does PSA get access to the electric car technology in the Ampera-e? PSA today uses Mitsubishi's technology in its electric cars and is involved in a collaboration with Honda, but it is no secret that PSA is about to be overtaken by the other European car manufacturers, Renault and Volkswagen among others.
I hope that PSA's acquisition ensures that we once again get Opel into the sales statistics and out on the road. But to be completely honest, I probably will never miss cars like the Mokka, Meriva and the latest model of the Zafira.
Let's get cars that can take up the legacy of Manta, Calibra, GT, Monza and early Ascona models!
See also:
