GM News: Dan Akerson: We Will Not 'Cut and Run' From Opel

[William Maley]

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

November 16, 2012

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson told Opel employees this week that the company will not sell or "simply close up shop and leave".

"As a global auto company, GM needs a strong design, engineering, manufacturing and sales presence in Europe. There's room for Chevrolet in Europe but Opel fulfills that role," Akerson said in a speech. "Recommendations that we 'cut and run' show you that some people simply do not see how important Opel is to our success."

Opel and Vauxhall have been a big loser for General Motors with the brands posting losses for the past few quarters. The two are expected to post a loss between $1.5 to $1.8 billion loss in the next fiscal year. Still, GM is very hopefully the brand will break even by 2015.

Akerson also mentioned PSA during his speech saying, "The fact is we lack economies of scale in critical areas and if we can achieve scale by partnering with PSA, that's what we are going to do."

Source: Reuters

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[Camino LS6]

Hmmph!

[G. David Felt]

Hello Dan Akerson,

FYI, stop drinking the punch drunk stupidity and wake up to the reality that those that follow and have been loyal to GM for the last 30 years have seen the nothing but losses of Opel/Vauxhall.

1) Cut the freaking Union payroll. They cannot have jobs for life. Too much capacity and not enough profit.

2) Close excess plants

3) Export CNG auto's to the US.

4) Consolidate Engineering, Sales, Marketing, etc.

If you cannot clean up this mess that has been nothing but a drain on GM ever since you bought it, you are the WRONG Person at GM.

We are not here to be a social safety net. There is no gaurantees and if you cannot understand this then you are lost.

[hyperv6]

Twinkie anyone?

[Camino LS6]

Opel = eternal money pit