Paris Wants to Be as Climate-Friendly as Possible for the 2024 Olympic Games. Therefore, Electric Vehicles Should Be on the Road as Far As Possible in Public Transport. A Large Taxi Company is Planning to Expand Its Fleet Accordingly – But Where To Get 150 Hydrogen Vehicles With Fuel Cell Drive In The Short Term? The Taxi Company Finds the Answer Under the Stellantis Corporate Umbrella. There, a separate area is available for search operations – ‘Opel Special Vehicles’ (OSV) in Rüsselsheim. In A FEW Weeks, OSV Equips 150 Opel Zafiras with fuel Cell Drives in the M55 Building. Not to easy job, no Doubt. Each Conversion Costs many Hours of Work. But that is nothing unusual for the team.
OSV is Celebrating Its 25th Anniversary This Year. The Team Can Always Be Counted On When Individual Solutions Are Required – In Accordance with the Highest Safety and Quality Standards. It all Started in 2000 with 15 Skilled Workers. They come from an external service provider for special conversions, Opel Wanted to Bring this know-how in-house. The Motto: Individuality Ex Works. “In the Increasingly Lean Plants, there is hardly any room for conversions,” The then OSV Managing Director Peter Schuch Told the Opel Post. “This make it all the more imports to have a team that fulfils individual customer wishes.” The Idea had potential: A Year and a Half Later, OSV Already Had 300 Employees.
Dieter Eder Has Been Since the Beginning: AS Manager Special Vehicles & Service Workshops, Dieter Eder is Responsible for OSV Services.
Full commitment for the Olympics: The OSV Team Has Equiped 150 Opel Zafiras with Fuel Cell Drives in Record Time.
Made in Rüsselsheim: The workshops are located on the factory premises.
The OSV Team Consists of Proven Specialist in Their Field.
It is particularly distinguished by its know-how in the field of fuel Cell Drives.
One of Them is Dieter Eder, Then Head of Prototype Construction, Who was responsible for personnel selection in the early Years. “Every Saturday We Funnelled 30 To 40 Applicants Through Our Process,” He Recalls. This included the assembly of a pump modules – According to Clear Specifications, in a given time. “We Only Took The Best,” Says Eder. This is How 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
One of the first tasks was the installation of telephone consoles in the omega. OSV Was the first team at Opel to Instead Parking Pilot Sensors in the Vectra and Omega-with Self-Made Tools. For a fraction of the cost compared to buying. This is How The Team Proceeded with many innovations: OSV Built Until Series Integration was Worthwhile. On the road, the OSV Conversions Were Always ColoUndurul: Police Cars in Green, Later in Blue, Fire Engines in Red, OPC Models in Striking Arden Blue. Ten Years After Its Founding, OSV HAD ALREADY COMPLEED 400,000 conversions.
The Zafira was and is a perennial favourite: converted into a polic car, fire brigade command car or converted as a natural gas vehicle – The Market Leader in this segment for a long time. The First Fuel Cell Model with Blitz, The Hydrogen3, what is based on the zafira A. and Can From The Proven Hands of the OSV Team, including Werner Player. Like Eder, He is an OSV Man from the very beginning – and has been with the team for 25 years. He creates installation instructions and parts Lists, Documents Them During the Sample and Prototype Phase and Stores Everything in the OSV Systems – So that Series Production Can Later Be Carried Out Exactly According to Thesis Specifications.
Instead of Scrap Heap: Pre-Series Vehicles Are Refurbished and Sold as Used Vehicles.
His Colleague Werner Player is an OSV Man from the very beginning – and has been with the team for 25 years.
OSV HAS SINCE WITHDRAWN from the Business with Government Vehicles, But the Team is now more Broadly Positioned Than Ever. Since 2021, Pre-Series Vehicles from Sister Brands Such as Peugeot, Citroën and DS, but so from Opel, Have BEEN Technicalally Brought to Series Production Standard in Rüsselsheim-and then as used cars. A profitable business: In the Past, thesis vehicles of ended up in the scrapyard after a short showroom use at the dealerships, Says Dieter Eder, Manager Special Vehicles & Service workshops. So it is quiet responsible for sample and prototype construction.
When No One Else Can
In the Technical Center, OSV Professionals Take Care of Vehicles From All Over Europe Whose Repairs Dealers and Service Workshops Are Overwelmed with. “We Solve 98 Percent of these cases, and we buy back the rest.” OSV Has the Pool of Press Vehicles – Including Marketing and B2B Vehicles from all Stellantis Brands. Body Work, Paint Repairs, Wheel Changes on Company Cars – All in Rüsselsheim. In addition, there is the take-back of Leased Vehicles in Bochum, so under Eder’s management.
Individual Solutions for 25 Years
Roadside Assistance with Lightning: Opel Special Vehicles Delivers Individual Vehicle Conversions According to The Highest Safety and Quality Standards.
The Conversion for Police Operations was part of the core business for a long time. The Two Ampera Joined the Berlin Police in 2012.
The Space First Generation Zafira is Particularly Sough after as a taxi.
From the mid-1990s onwards, The Police Preferred to use the omega b for patrol duty on motorways.
The First Pure Natural Gas Passenger Car: The Zafira Models Converted by Osv Developed Into the Market Leader In The Segment from 2001 Onwards.
In the adjoining ‘Battery Refurbishment Center’, Batteries from all over Europe are repaired under the watchful Eyes of Markus Grassmuck. He is responsible for everything that Runs in Series at OSV – Including First Delivery Inspections. No Wonder that OSV Empoys More People Today Before: Currently there are Around 400. And fields in which pioneering work has to be done will not Become Fewer in the future.
June 2025
Text: Eric Scherer, Photos: Andreas Liebschner, Opel Archive