It will be a big celebration when Opel invites people to its anniversary this Saturday. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected in Rüsselsheim. 125 years ago, the company brought its first car onto the market. What followed was a very eventful history. For most of that time, the German brand was part of a foreign group, first General Motors, then PSA, which has since merged to form the Stellantis Group. Today, Opel is less independent than ever. But it is successful.
No other car manufacturer in Germany is undergoing such a radical transformation as Opel. This applies not only to the recent past, but also to the future. At the birthday party, the Rüsselsheim residents and the Chancellor can experience first-hand how the company has changed since 2017 – and what is coming next.
At that time, Opel was on the brink of financial ruin. After years of losses and failed attempts to restructure and sell the company, the parent company General Motors had run out of patience with its German subsidiary. It sold the billion-dollar Opel to the French PSA Group (Peugeot Citroën), which had just fought its way out of the red through a tough austerity program.
Under PSA boss Carlos Tavares, who is considered a “cost killer” in the industry, the staff cuts and savings continued. Tavares is still the head of the Stellantis group, into which Opel has since been absorbed.
In Rüsselsheim you can see what is left of Opel: A huge factory that is only partially used to capacity. A company headquarters that has largely been transformed into the Stellantis German headquarters. A design center and a remnant of the once large development department. Stellantis sold most of the development center to the French service provider Segula five years ago. Its buildings, which once belonged to Opel, are in the immediate vicinity of the Adam Opel House.
The current Opel boss, Florian Huettl, will probably not tell the Chancellor about this decline when he receives him at the company headquarters. Instead, he will talk about the future. Huettl, who moved from Renault to Stellantis in 2021 and has been Opel boss for exactly two years, is one of a long line of managers who have tried their hand at the brand. In the past 20 years alone, Opel has had ten bosses – each of whom had to follow the strategy of General Motors, PSA or now Stellantis.
The current boss’s task: to lead Opel into electromobility. The plan behind which Tavares stands is more radical than that of other car brands. Starting next year, Opel will only bring purely electric models onto the market.
By 2028, combustion engines will be completely gone. Even the current weak demand is not deterring Opel from doing so: Huettl most recently confirmed the plan at the end of April in an interview with WELT at the Eisenach plant. The manager has already presented the first two models of this new era: the Frontera, a smaller SUV, and the Grandland, one of the largest Opel models of all time. Both are purely electric.
The new vehicles are part of product families that have never existed so consistently in the GM Group. Stellantis is gradually building the new cars of all 14 Group brands on just four different sized platforms. The technical basis for the Grandland and Frontera does not come from Rüsselsheim. Only the shell for the cars is designed there – in the design center, which the Chancellor can visit.
Opel is proud of this center not only because it survived the major downsizing, but also because of its long tradition. 60 years ago, the manufacturer was the first car brand in Europe to open such a design center. Nevertheless, not all of its creations were a success.
After Opel dominated a good fifth of the German new car market until the end of the 1970s, the brand’s market share slipped to around one sixth in the 1980s and 1990s, and then in 2005 it fell below ten percent, a share that the brand has not achieved since. Its competitor Volkswagen, once on a par, has now left the company far behind.
At least Opel says it is no longer making losses. And sales figures are rising again – after they had roughly halved during the pandemic. Last year, Opel, including its British sister brand Vauxhall, sold 670,000 vehicles worldwide. Five years earlier, the number was 200,000 more in Europe alone. How much revenue and profit Opel really generates is a trade secret of Stellantis.
One thing is certain: 125 years ago, the first Opel car came onto the market, the “Lutzmann” model, which the Rüsselsheim-based company had bought from the developer of the same name from Dessau. It turned out to be a flop. It was only the “Doctor’s Car” 4/8 hp and the “Tree Frog” in the 1920s that brought the car manufacturer’s breakthrough. From 1929, Opel belonged to GM, including during the Second World War, until it was sold in 2017.
Adam Opel did not live to see all of this. During the founder’s lifetime, the company was a manufacturer of sewing machines and bicycles.
