Opel announces plans for SA market after departure from GM

The first waves of the tsunami began to form when GM (General Motors) announced that it had sold off the Opel brand and its operations to the PSA (Peugeot Citroen) Group internationally. This left many Opel drivers in South Africa wondering what would happen to their cars and service plans.

The wave truly broke when GM announced that they would be pulling the plug on their operations in South Africa, leaving employees, dealerships and consumers with a lot of unanswered questions.

After a few weeks of radio silence, an invitation for a media briefing session from   Opel South Africa left us with a glimmer of hope for the brand. We would finally find out what the future of Opel would be.

Beginning the briefing, Ian Nicholls, president of Opel SA, announced that Opel would continue its operations in South Africa and would continue to introduce new models into the market. PSA recently acquired the Opel brand globally, but here in South Africa, Opel would become a standalone brand with little to no involvement from PSA. New vehicles will share PSA platforms and will be distributed and sold through Williams Hunt (and other selected dealerships) across the country.

Bill Mott (Opel's director of international sales operations) then took to the stage and unveiled the New Opel Crossland X that will make its debut on our shores in the fourth quarter of 2017. He also announced that a new Grandland X would follow in the first quarter of 2018 and that there would be further introductions of models thereafter.

During a Q&A session it was revealed that Opel will continue to share space with Isuzu and GM in the parts warehouse, while all service plans and warranties will be upheld and serviced by the newly appointed Williams Hunt group.

Although questions regarding the future of GM were not allowed, we did hear that the Chevrolet UTE (previously the Corsa Bakkie), will cease production completely, with no plans from Isuzu or Opel to continue manufacture of the beloved little vehicle.

Said Bill Mott: "We view South Africa as an important market. We are confident that the brand will continue to grow from strength to strength globally, and here in South Africa, because of the solid foundation that has been built in the 80-plus years Opel has been here."

With much more to do before this is all made official by January 2018, Opel is looking forward to a bright future in South Africa.