A labour leader at General Motors’ unit Adam Opel has renewed calls for GM’s head office in Detroit to approve the sale of Opel-brand passenger cars in North America as the German business faces a weak European market, according to a news agency report.
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“If we really push it, we could begin selling Opel cars in the US in one to two years,” Klaus Franz, head of the Opel works council, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The brand could succeed despite brutal competition by emphasising its European design and engineering, he reportedly said.
A spokesman for GM in Europe told Reuters the company had no plans to export Opels to the US. “The most important reason is the unfavourable exchange rate, but that’s not the only one,” he added.
“The company has a sufficient number of brands in the US to cover all customer groups, and Opel’s US sister brand Saturn integrates Opel technology and design into its models much like Opel’s sister-brand Vauxhall does in the UK,” the spokesman continued, according to Reuters.
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By GlobalDataOpel cars have previously been exported to the US from Germany. Small sedans were sold through Buick dealers until about 30 years ago.
More recently, the brand’s top European sedan, the Omega, was re-badged as the Cadillac Catera for sale in the US but the model never achieved the sales targets set for it.
