General Motors is considering producing some Opel models in the US to take advantage of the weak dollar.
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Speaking at a Handelsblatt conference in Frankfurt, Opel CEO, Hans Demant, said that if sales of the Saturn-branded Astra are successful this could be a way of producing more cars in the country. At the moment Opel is only expecting to sell around 40,000 cars in North America, but if it were able to export as well it would make sense to produce the cars there.
Demant said that GM always aims to produce cars where they are sold, but it would need to sell around 250,000 cars in North America to make local production viable.
Media reports suggested that Opel is also considering selling the Corsa and the Vectra in the US while GM is also thinking about using European built diesel engines in the US. The problem is that these cars and engines are all built in Europe at euro prices, and they would struggle to compete in the dollar zone.
The Astra goes on sale in the US from the beginning of January. It will be the first time for 30 years that Opel cars have been sold there. The cars will be built in GM’s Antwerp plant in Belgium.
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