General Motors’ German unit Opel does not plan to speed up introduction of a redesigned Astra model line to counter a potential early revamp of rival VW’s new Golf, a labour leader told Reuters on Friday.
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“The new Astra will come as planned,” Opel works council chief Klaus Franz told the news agency, quashing speculation that the model changeover could come sooner than 2009/2010 given Volkswagen’s stepped-up Golf timetable.
Reuters noted that VW company sources have said Europe’s biggest carmaker will bring forward launching the new Golf by a year to 2008, giving it a head start of a least a year over its main competitor. The current Golf was launched in 2003 and the Astra in 2004.
GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster had stoked talk of a counterstrike by Opel when he told Germany’s Handelsblatt paper he was keeping a close eye on VW’s plans, the report noted.
“When our main competitor feels compelled to bring forward its most important product, we watch that with interest,” he was quoted as saying, although he reportedly added it would not risk eroding quality by acting hastily.
Franz told Reuters Opel would freshen the current version of the Astra to try to keep sales moving before the new model arrives.
Analysts reportedly say a new Golf in 2008 would put significant pressure on Astra sales.
It would also let the Golf capture market share that Opel would have to fight to win back, analyst Jens Schattner at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein told Reuters.
Lars Ziehn at WestLB reportedly said he suspected that VW would not bring out an entirely new Golf in 2008 but rather unveil a “big facelift” that nevertheless could hit Astra sales and put pressure on GM margins in Europe.
Reuters noted that GM aims to break even this year in Europe, where it last made a profit in 1999.
VW’s move on the Golf could spice up negotiations at GM over where to build the next generation of Astra, a decision Franz told the news agency he did not expect before 2007.
