Opel chief executive Michael Lohscheller says the decision from General Motors to sell the German brand to French autogiant PSA Group was the right move.
Speaking at the Automotive News Europe Congress last week, Lohscheller says he literally took the cookies away from every Opel board meeting as the business made tough calls to slash costs and simplify its product portfolio.
“What made a big difference was that within PSA, Europe is the core business, and this focus on Europe made a lot of things easier,” he says.
Lohscheller says the core European brand struggled under General Motors because of two different “synergies” between it and the Detroit giant.
“What are really the synergies between an Opel Corsa in Croatia and a pickup truck in Idaho?” he asked.
“We tried to find global synergies, which sometimes are not so easy to find,” Lohscheller revealed.
Automotive News reports the company’s product cost-per-vehicle was down €367 (A$591), more than half of the $785 (A$1133) reduction target for 2020, and Opel will go from nine platforms under General Motors to just two under PSA ownership.
Lohscheller also says reducing from ten engine families to just two will also kickstart the Opel revival.
“That’s a massive complexity reduction with huge, huge benefits,” he adds.
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