By 2014, all vehicles for the General Motors US Saturn and General Motors Europe (GME) Opel brands will be interchangeable, GME president Carl-Peter Forster has told WardsAuto.com.
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“From now on, whenever we develop a vehicle, we have to make sure we can export it to the US, and vice versa,” he told the trade publication, adding that each new model would be capable of meeting global regulations.
This means the Opel Astra and the replacement for the Saturn Ion are the same vehicle, as is the Opel Antara and next Saturn Vue cross/utility vehicles, WardsAuto.com noted.
The Astra as the Saturn Ion replacement “is absolutely the right vehicle,” Bryan Nesbitt, who oversees design for Opel and Saturn brands from Europe, said according to the report, which added that their designs would be very similar though it was not yet known if they both will be named Astra.
General Motors Europe’s plant in Antwerp, Belgium, would build the Saturn models, with production to begin at the end of 2007, WardsAuto.com said. The three- and five-door hatchback Astras (no sedan is planned) badged Saturn would have low volumes initially.
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By GlobalDataPhysical changes to the body shop in Antwerp are under way to accommodate necessary changes to meet North American regulations for the Saturns, the report added.
The GM Daewoo-built Antara SUV will go to North America as the next-generation Saturn Vue within the next year, WardsAuto.com was told.
Design-wise, “you won’t see much difference between the two vehicles (Antara and Vue),” Nesbitt told the publication.
Meanwhile, the Saturn Sky roadster, built in Wilmington, Delaware, is being exported to Europe as the Opel GT, starting next year.
WardsAuto.com said some models are a generation away from transatlantic sharing, including the Opel Corsa and Vectra.
The newly redesigned Corsa, just going on sale in Europe now, won’t go to the US, the report said, citing GM chairman Rick Wagoner.
“From a price-value perspective, the [GM Daewoo-built] (Chevrolet) Aveo has done very well as far as meeting that entry-car buyer, high fuel-economy segment. So right now there are no plans to bring the Corsa to the US,” he told WardsAuto.com.
“But I certainly wouldn’t rule it out,” he reportedly added, given the auto maker’s global approach to product development that opens up “options like that, that historically we probably wouldn’t have had.”
It is expected to make the voyage in the subsequent generation, WardsAuto.com said.
The report said the counterpart to the Opel Vectra would be the future Saturn Aura. The current Aura, which went on sale on 31 July, and the Vectra, which was freshened last year, currently ride on different architectures and are markedly different in design, especially the nose styling.
Nesbitt reportedly said he likes the idea of the Vectra wagon crossing the pond as an Aura wagon for Saturn, but noted wagons still are difficult to sell in the US.
One potential exception to the model sharing, Nesbitt told WardsAuto.com, is larger vehicles – namely the all-new Saturn Outlook CUV for North America. Salable production begins in November from GM’s new midsize crossover architecture, formerly known as Lambda.
“There is still a market in North America for larger vehicles, which Opel doesn’t have,” Nesbitt told the trade publication.
He reportedly said he was not sure whether the Opel brand would be able to support a vehicle of that size in five years when the next-generation Outlook hits the market.
But, “all other (Opel) vehicles could be Saturns,” he confirmed to WardsAuto.com.
As to assembly plant location, Forster reportedly said: “80,000-120,000 sales is the threshold at which point it makes sense to build on that side of the ocean.”
