Paris wants to show itself as climate -friendly as possible for the 2024 Olympics. Electrical vehicles should therefore be as far as possible in local public transport. A large taxi company plans to expand its fleet accordingly – but where do you get 150 hydrogen cars with fuel cell drive at short notice? The taxi company finds the answer under the Stellantis corporation roof. There is a separate area for such operations – “Opel Special Vehicles” (OSV) in Rüsselsheim. In a few weeks, OSV is equipping 150 Opel Zafira with fuel cell drive in the building M55 on time. Not an easy job, undoubtedly. Each conversion costs many working hours. But nothing unusual for the team.
OSV celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The team is always in use when individual solutions around the vehicle are required- according to the highest safety and quality standards. It all started in 2000 with 15 F-Building specialists. They came from an external service provider for special conversions, Opel wanted to bring this know-how into the house. The motto: individuality ex works. “There is hardly any room for conversions in the ever slimmer works,” said OSV managing director Peter Schuch in a report by the Opel Post. “All the more important to have a team that meets individual customer requests.” The idea had potential: A year and a half later, OSV already has 300 employees.
Since the beginning: Dieter Eder is responsible for OSV services as manager Special Vehicles & Service workshops.
Full of use for the Olympics: The OSV team equipped 150 Opel Zafira with fuel cell drive in record time.
Made in Rüsselsheim: The workshops are located on the factory premises.
The OSV team consists of designated specialists in your field.
It is particularly characterized by the know-how about fuel cell drives.
One of them: Dieter Eder. Master for sample and prototype construction, also responsible for personnel selection in the early years. “Every Saturday we smeared 30 to 40 applicants through our procedure,” he recalls. This included the assembly of a pump module – according to a clear requirement. “We only took the best,” says Eder. A strong team grew- with innovative strength, team spirit and flexibility: individual or group work, line production- depending on the order.
With innovative strength and team spirit
The first tasks included installing telephone consoles in the Omega. OSV was also the first team at Opel, the park pilot sensors built in the Vectra and Omega-with self-made tools. For a fraction of the costs compared to the purchase. So the team moved with many innovations: OSV built until series integration was worthwhile. The OSV conversions were always colorful on the street: police cars in green, later in blue, fire engine in red, OPC models in the striking Ardenblau. Ten years after the foundation, OSV had already realized 400,000 conversions.
The Zafira model was and is a permanent favorite: converted into a police car, fire brigade commands or converted as a natural gas vehicle-long market leader in this segment. The first fuel cell model with flash, the Hydrogen3, was also based on the Zafira A. and came from the tried and tested hands of the OSV team. The project manager of the Zafira project for Paris was Werner. Like Eder, he is an OSV man from the very beginning-and for 25 years.
Instead of scrap press: pre -series vehicles are processed and sold as used vehicles.
The colleague Werner player is an OSV man from the very beginning-and for 25 years.
OSV has now withdrawn from business with authorities, but the team is broader today than ever. Since 2021, pre -series vehicles from sister brands such as Peugeot, Citroën and DS, but also by Opel in Rüsselsheim, have been brought to a series level – and then sold as a used car. A worthwhile business: In the past, after a short showroom insert, these vehicles often landed in the junkyard, says Dieter Eder, manager Special Vehicles & Service workshops. Eder is still responsible for the sample and prototype construction.
If nobody else can do it
In the technology center, OSV professionals take care of vehicles from all over Europe, with the repairs of which dealers and service workshops are overwhelmed. “We solve 98 percent of these cases, we buy the rest back.” The press pool is now also located on OSV-including marketing and B2B vehicles of all Stellantis brands. Body work, paint repairs, change of wheels on company cars – everything in Rüsselsheim. In addition, there is the withdrawal of leasing vehicles in Bochum, also under Eder’s management.
Individual solutions for 25 years
Breakdown helpers with lightning: Opel Special Vehicles delivers individual vehicle conversions according to the highest safety and quality standards.
The renovation for the police operation was also part of the core business for a long time. The two Ampera started their service at the Berlin police in 2012.
The spacious space of the first generation of Zafira is particularly advantageous for taxi operation.
From the mid-1990s, the police were preferred by Omega B for patrol service on motorways.
The first pure natural gas car: the Zafira models converted by OSV will develop into the segment from 2001 as the market leader.
Batteries from all over Europe are repaired in the connected “Battery Refurbishment Center”. Responsible: Markus Grassmuck, responsible for everything that runs in series at OSV-including initial delivery inspections. No wonder that OSV employs more employees today than ever: there are currently around 400. And fields on which pioneering work has to be done will be no less in the future. Hydrogen drives are just one example.
June 2025
Text: Eric Scherer, Photos: Andreas Liebschner