It’s a beginning. While Opel wants to enter twenty new countries in five years, the new property of PSA will start by pushing the fires in Chile and Ukraine, two countries where the mark with the lightning is already present epsilonnesque.
Along the Andes Cordillera, “we want to triple or quadruple sales in 2018,” says Carlos Gomes, PSA’s Latin America manager. Opel’s potential there is immediate, Chile is a good test for the brand because many competitors are present. Opel sold 211 cars there in 2017.
The situation is more or less the same in Ukraine, where the German brand sold 300 vehicles last year. “This is a small volume, but a larger deployment could be quickly relevant,” says Christophe Bergerand, the director of Eurasia at PSA. The latter is considering how to create an on-site dealer network with Opel’s international development team.
On the other hand, Opel’s return to Russia will take place in a second time, after 2020. “Opel pulled out of the country in 2015 and has a large fleet there,” says Christophe Bergerand. We need to quickly review Opel in Russia, the brand is known here, but it will be profitable, “says the leader. PSA has a factory in Russia, in Kaluga. Opel’s aftermarket in the former USSR was not part of the deal with General Motors, the former owner of the German brand.
Double sales outside Europe
In Opel Strategic Plan unveiled in November , the German General Staff announced plans to double the brand’s sales outside Europe by 2020 – with a longer-term goal of achieving more than 10% of its volumes outside the borders of the Old Continent by 2022 .
Over the last five months of last year, Opel has sold 404,000 vehicles, including 376,000 in Europe and 27,000 in Africa and the Middle East. The brand is present in a limited way in the Middle East, Egypt, the Maghreb, South Africa and the Emirates.