Chevrolet to the rescue

[Oracle of Delphi]

You all know GME and Chevy grow closer and closer together. Here's an article from Automotive News that shows just how close. It looks like GM Daewoo is falling under GME's spell.

John Revill

Automotive News Europe

January 21, 06:01 CET

General Motors Europe could build Chevrolet cars in Germany and Sweden to meet booming European demand for the brand.

GM’s underused factories in Rüsselsheim, Germany, and Trollhättan, Sweden, could begin production of Chevrolet cars within two years, high-level GM sources told Automotive News Europe.

Chevrolet aims to double its European sales to 1 million by 2010, Wayne Brannon, head of Chevrolet Europe, told the Financial Times at the Detroit auto show last week.

Currently, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology in Korea builds most Chevrolets sold in Europe. Chevrolets are also built in Poland, Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in GM factories or with local partners. Those plants have the capacity to raise European Chevrolet production to 640,000 a year by 2010.

Asked by ANE where the remaining production could take place, a board-level GM Europe source pointed to Rüsselsheim and Trollhättan.

Rüsselsheim currently builds the Vectra upper-medium car and is due to start production of the Saab 9-3 and 9-5 models after 2010. Chevrolet’s new Epica, due in 2010, could be built in the same plant as those Opel and Saab models, a GM source said.

Trollhättan will build the next Astra, which will share its architecture with the Chevrolet Nubira successor. That means the Nubira, which is due in 2009, could be made in Sweden.

Adding Chevrolet production would give Rüsselsheim and Trollhättan a needed boost.

The factories were under threat of closure during GM Europe’s recent restructuring program.

Rüsselsheim’s capacity use was forecast to be 55.4 percent last year and Trollhättan’s 81.4 percent, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers Automotive Institute.

A Chevrolet Europe spokesman said the company is looking to increase its European production because it does not have enough capacity in Korea.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Umm.. Supplemental production is "Daewoo falling under GME's spell"

Looks to me like GMDAT is actually making inroads into GME territory since your operations aren't efficient enough to stand alone.

Beware GMDAT...

If they get a foothold in Europe, the next step is introducing models that compete with Opels. And I seem to remember a little bird saying that Chevrolet is the global brand, not Opel. Nothing like dining with the emperor, then stealing his knife and cutting his throat.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Umm.. Supplemental production is "Daewoo falling under GME's spell"

Looks to me like GMDAT is actually making inroads into GME territory since your operations aren't efficient enough to stand alone.

Beware GMDAT...

If they get a foothold in Europe, the next step is introducing models that compete with Opels. And I seem to remember a little bird saying that Chevrolet is the global brand, not Opel. Nothing like dining with the emperor, then stealing his knife and cutting his throat.

Not to worry, legally GM Daewoo is tied to Holden, however if that were to be switched to GM Europe, Holden would be isolated, no other GM ties. :AH-HA_wink:

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

www.notgonnahappen.com

This could be a first strike by Holden against you. Luck is already on their side with as much as they export in relation to GME as well as their assumed higher place among the GM empire. (Hell, they practiclly control China -- the soon to be #1 market)

Maybe we're seeing a Reuss/Forster showdown. So far, it looks like Reuss is mobilizing better.

TICK TOCK :AH-HA_wink:

Edited January 21, 2008 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[Oracle of Delphi]

www.notgonnahappen.com

This could be a first strike by Holden against you. Luck is already on their side with as much as they export in relation to GME as well as their assumed higher place among the GM empire. (Hell, they practiclly control China -- the soon to be #1 market)

Maybe we're seeing a Reuss/Forster showdown. So far, it looks like Reuss is mobilizing better.

TICK TOCK :AH-HA_wink:

I think soon you will see CPF elevated to a seat on the GM Board (Spring 2008), eventually Reuss will have a direct tie to CPF, after all who do you think put him there. Did you notice Holden's former Chairman and Managing Director Chris Grubbey now reports to CPF?

[Intrepidation]

I don't like the politics and personal vendettas that go on inside GM. Instead of trying to destroy parts of the company they should be working together as a whole for the greater good of the company and fight against Japan Inc not itself.

[vonVeezelsnider]

GM kills Impala because of its threat to CAFE.

CAFE only counts for vehicles built in the US.

GME has capacity to spare.

Hmm...

*Speculation Cap On*

Any Zetas and Alphas that may end up being built for the NA market and not imported from OZ will be made in Canada... The FWD Impala replacement (read Bel Air; Biscayne, cause it can't be called Impala outside Oshawa) will move from Oshawa to where the two Zetas were promised in the UAW contract to make up for the lost product there and preserve the employment... Oshawa works on a whole shwack of low volume Alpha and Zeta till bubble bursts... Oshawa closes.

Edited January 21, 2008 by vonVeezelsnider

[Intrepidation]

I really wanted to see a RWD Impala. What the f@#k is the point of even having a replacement if it's not going to be different than the Malibu? It's a little bigger, woopity f@#king do. If it's RWD it'll be something different and unique and give buyers a clear alternative. If it's FWD I hope like hell it fails miserably.

[VenSeattle]

*Speculation Cap On*

Any Zetas and Alphas that may end up being built for the NA market and not imported from OZ will be made in Canada... The FWD Impala replacement (read Bel Air; Biscayne, cause it can't be called Impala outside Oshawa) will move from Oshawa to where the two Zetas were promised in the UAW contract to make up for the lost product there and preserve the employment... Oshawa works on a whole shwack of low volume Alpha and Zeta till bubble bursts... Oshawa closes.

The two Zetas promised in the UAW contract were at Cadillac's Lansing Grand River plant... No FWD vehicles will be produced there. Sorry.

[ZL-1]

The two Zetas promised in the UAW contract were at Cadillac's Lansing Grand River plant... No FWD vehicles will be produced there. Sorry.

Yay no FWD at Grand River!!

Seriously now, I hope that even if the Zeta Lucerne/Park Avenue gets canned, the DTS/DT7 still has a business case going for it...

EDIT - if Trollhättan gets the Astra, will it get a Saab 9-1 too?

Edited January 21, 2008 by ZL-1

[Camino LS6]

I don't like the politics and personal vendettas that go on inside GM. Instead of trying to destroy parts of the company they should be working together as a whole for the greater good of the company and fight against Japan Inc not itself.

Best post yet about this stinking pile of BS.

[Intrepidation]

I'f I'm reading this right GM-DAT is rescuing underused GME plants because not enough peopel want their products?

[thegriffon]

I really think it they need more capacity they will build more Astras (or Zafiras) in Sweden to free capacity in Poland for Chevrolet. NA is a better source of cars for Chevrolet Europe than Germany or Sweden (all to do with cost).

[gm4life]

So GM can build Zeta's outside the USA and not have to meet cafe standards? Or does this apply to Canada too?

[ocnblu]

Is there any other country in the world besides the good ol' USA that imposes ridiculous fuel mileage standards? Are relatively high fuel prices and poorer economies the two things keeping people in smaller cars elsewhere, or is there something else?

[gm4life]

Were the only idots out there.

[wildpaws]

Were the only idots out there.

All due to the inmates running the asylum in DC!! AKA Disney on the Potomac.

Clyde

[Guest YellowJacket894]

*Speculation Cap On*

Any Zetas and Alphas that may end up being built for the NA market and not imported from OZ will be made in Canada... The FWD Impala replacement (read Bel Air; Biscayne, cause it can't be called Impala outside Oshawa) will move from Oshawa to where the two Zetas were promised in the UAW contract to make up for the lost product there and preserve the employment... Oshawa works on a whole shwack of low volume Alpha and Zeta till bubble bursts... Oshawa closes.

Nope. That's not how it'll pan out. Zeta is walking the razor more and more everyday as GME starts gaining traction in Detroit. And what Zeta cars we might wind up with (Buick Park Avenue/Lucerne and Cadillac DT7) probably will be sales and business case dependent when they are due to be replaced by a new generation model.

Also, Oshawa is a flex plant, meaning it can build more than just rear-drive cars, so, yes, front-drive cars will more than likely be built there in addition to the Camaro, which looks to be the only rear-drive car that will be built at Oshawa.

You do have one thought right and it's that the NG Impala may wear another nameplate. There are some signs out there that tend to indicate this, and I personally hope to God that they prove true. I don't want the Epi II Chevy "flagship" to wear the Impala badge (or the SS one, for that matter) because I know it won't and can't properly represent it, just like the last two cars we've had to put up with.

Edited January 22, 2008 by YellowJacket894

[thegriffon]

Is there any other country in the world besides the good ol' USA that imposes ridiculous fuel mileage standards? Are relatively high fuel prices and poorer economies the two things keeping people in smaller cars elsewhere, or is there something else?

Not yet, but the EU is planning to impose CO2 limits that will be fuel economy standards by proxy.

Smaller cars elsewhere have been encouraged by high taxation on fuel, increasing tax and registration charges on larger cars, particularly with engines above 2.0 L (the French socialist government after WWII deliberately killed their luxury car industry), extra privileges for drivers of the smallest classes of cars etc.. These incentives have increased in recent years with added charges for CO2 emissions (steep annual charges for higher CO2 emission brackets, congestion charges for vehicles emitting more than a minimum CO2 emission rating etc.).

[Robert Hall]

I wonder if Chevrolet Europe will ever get any legitimately Chevy cars (besides the Corvette), rather than just peddling rebadged Daewoo generics?

Edited January 22, 2008 by moltar

[thegriffon]

They get the HHR now and will get the Camaro as well. What is more in the near future the Daewoo-built Chevrolet's and North American models will be the same.

[Duncan]

I wonder if Chevrolet Europe will ever get any legitimately Chevy cars (besides the Corvette), rather than just peddling rebadged Daewoo generics?

Why couldn't the next Cobalt just as well be the next Epica? They can build it wherever they want to keep costs down, but I don't see the point in having dueling platforms within the same nameplate around the world.

Honestly, Daewoo seems to be able to design and build a decent car, but GM's got to integrate itself a little better than it seems to be doing currently. Sharing more platforms around the world (including, say, the ZETA for instance) would be step one.

[Intrepidation]

Why couldn't the next Cobalt just as well be the next Epica? They can build it wherever they want to keep costs down, but I don't see the point in having dueling platforms within the same nameplate around the world.

Honestly, Daewoo seems to be able to design and build a decent car, but GM's got to integrate itself a little better than it seems to be doing currently. Sharing more platforms around the world (including, say, the ZETA for instance) would be step one.

The Epica is a midsize car like the Malibu...what does the Cobalt have to do with the Epica?