General Motors’ Opel brand will push growth in Russia as part of an export drive to offset slumping business in Europe but steer clear of China, according to German reports.
“For Opel, Russia is of great importance,” GM chief executive Dan Akerson told German weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag, according to Reuters. “In a few years time, the Russian market could become bigger than the German one.”
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Opel will continue its export campaign after entering Australia, Chile and Singapore last year and the Arab emirates in 2013, CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann told the newspaper.
Opel enjoys almost a “premium image” in Russia where the brand sold over 80,000 cars last year, Neumann said, also citing Turkey as a key growth market with about 50,000 deliveries.
By contrast, boosting exposure in China would cost Opel “hundreds of millions of euros”, Neumann said, adding the car maker has “other priorities”.
