The board of the Autobauer Opel was completely surprised by the negotiations with the French competitor PSA Peugeot Citroën. According to information from manager-magazin.de, the management of the Rüsselsheim traditional company was only telephoned by telephone on the plans of the American parent company General Motors (GM) on Tuesday morning. Only Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann had been informed a little earlier.
GM's information policy is also delicate because Neumann has been working on a different future project for the car manufacturer for months. The boss wants Opel 2030 to a pure electric brand remodel, manager magazin (12 o'clock release date 17 February from Thursday, 16 February reported in its latest issue here can be accessed online ).
GM CEO Mary Barra and Opel's Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dan Ammann, are coming to Rüsselsheim today to inform the top management about the discussions with PSA. The corporations confirm negotiations for a deepened cooperation. The sale of Opels to PSA is one of the discussed scenarios .
Opel's chief executive Neumann has developed the alternative electro strategy in the past months together with the Management Board. Neumann wants to build the new Opel on the new electroplatform of the GM Group. The first of the battery-powered models is currently on the market. In the spring, at the latest in May, the GM Executive Board is supposed to decide on the electrical plan. That's how it promised the leadership in Detroit, says it in Rüsselsheim. GM CEO Mary Barra has been promoting the development of electric cars for years. What chances the electric plan of the Opel management in view of the negotiations of the GM top with Peugeot stock chart show now still is unclear.
The Neumann Plan is a break-out scenario in the company and an opportunity to ensure the survival of the brand. GM has not earned any profit in Europe for more than 15 years. In 2016 the operating loss was 257 million dollars. The prospects for 2017 are also gloomy, reports manager magazin.
Against this backdrop, Neumann sees the risk that Opel will not be able to invest sufficiently in the medium term with the simultaneous development of cars with combustion engines and electric drives, the company says. Therefore, he wanted to focus the brand completely at an early stage on the drive of the future. As from 2030, no more burners should be offered. The development should therefore be stopped earlier. Neumann had even split up into an Old and a New Opel, reports manager magazin. The models would be the current giants Eon and RWE, who have both recently shared.