Opel, now under PSA control, will gradually move all its vehicles to its new parent’s technology, reduce its model range, concentrate on high margin segments and eye new markets abandoned or not considered by previous owner General Motors, the Frankfurter Allgemeine said on Monday.

The report, published days before Opel officially announces its plans on Thursday, 9 November, said PSA wants Opel purchasing combined with that of Peugeot Citroen and lower labour costs. Russelsheim, Opel’s main facility near Frankfurt, is likely to become a competence centre for engineering services, focusing on partial or complete electrification.

The paper also suggests there is no future within PSA for electrified GM models such as the Ampera. It said PSA CEO Carlos Tavares ruthlessly measures each project’s return on investment and reportedly has described the car as “red ink”.

Frankfurter Allgemeine said the PSA plan for Opel is similar to Tavares’ PSA shakeup begun in 2014 with impressive results since. Rather than mass redundancies, such as following the closure of the Bochum plant, PSA is likely to impose measures such as a hiring freeze and extend severance offers.

Applying the same tactics as used with the ‘Back in the race’ and ‘Push to pass’ programmes used to turn around PSA, Tavares reportedly wants operational break even as early as 2019 and a 2% return on sales by 2020 – PSA is expected to reach 6% this year.

The unsourced report suggests Opel’s new French owner has even axed serving of biscuits in meetings and no longer supplies expensive iPhones to employees.

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As for the future of Opel management: their autonomy “is proportional to its success”, Tavares was quoted as saying.