Opel

Adam Opel GmbH
Company type	Private company, subsidiary of General Motors
Industry	Automotive
Founded	Rüsselsheim, Germany on January 21, 1863
Founder	Adam Opel
Headquarters	Rüsselsheim, Germany
Number of locations	production locations: Germany: Bochum, Eisenach, Kaiserslautern and Rüsselsheim. Spain: Zaragoza. Poland: Gliwice. Belgium: Antwerp. UK: Ellesmere Port and Luton (Vauxhall factories). Austria: Vienna/Aspern.
Area served	Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Pacific
Key people	Opel Management Board: Nick Reilly (CEO), Reinald Hoben (Manufacturing), Holger Kimmes (HR), Tom McMillen (Purchasing), Alain Visser (Sales, Marketing & Aftersales), Rita Forst (Executive Director, Vehicle Systems & Integration), Mark James (Chief Financial Office)
Products	Automobiles
Services	GMAC, OnStar
Revenue	€18.2 billion (2009)
Owner	General Motors (100%)
Number of employees	25,103 (2009)
Subsidiaries	Opel Performance Center
Website	Opel.com

Adam Opel GmbH is a German automobile company founded in 1863.^[1] It has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Motors (GM) since 1929. The company operated as a German AG (since 2005 GmbH).

Opel is headquartered in Rüsselsheim, Hesse, Germany.

History

The company was founded in Rüsselsheim, Hesse, Germany on 21 January 1863 by Adam Opel. At the beginning, Opel just produced sewing machines in a cowshed in Rüsselsheim. Above all, his success was based on his perfectly customized sewing machines. Because of the quick growth of his business, in 1888 the production was relocated from the cowshed to a more spacious building in Rüsselsheim. Encouraged by success, Adam Opel launched a new product in 1886: He began to sell high-wheel bicycles, also known as penny-farthings. Besides, Opel's two sons participated in high-wheel bicycle races and thus promoted this means of transportation. Therefore, the production of high-wheel bicycles soon exceeded the production of sewing machines.^[2] At the time of Opel's death in 1895, he was the leader in both markets.

The first cars were produced in 1899 after Opel's sons entered into a partnership with Friedrich Lutzmann, a locksmith at the court in Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt, who had been working on automobile designs for some time.^[3] These cars were not very successful and so the partnership was dissolved after two years, following which Opel's sons signed a licensing agreement with the French Automobiles Darracq S.A. to manufacture vehicles under the brand name "Opel-Darracq". These cars were made up of Opel bodies mounted on a Darracq chassis, powered by a 2-cylinder engine.

The company first showed cars of its own design at the 1902 Hamburg Motor Show, and started manufacturing them in 1906, with Opel-Darracq production being discontinued in 1907.

In 1911, the company's factory was virtually destroyed by fire and a new one was built with more up-to-date machinery. In the same year, production of sewing machines ended. By 1913, Opel had become the largest car maker in Germany, and in 1924 it installed Germany's first car production line.

In March 1929 General Motors, impressed by Opel's modern production facilities, bought 80% of the company, increasing this to 100% in 1931. The Opel family gained $33.3 million from the transaction. Subsequently, a second factory was built at Brandenburg for the production of "Blitz" (~"Lightning") light trucks.

Bicycle production ended in 1937 and, following the outbreak of World War II, the company's factories were seized by the Nazi regime in 1940. Passenger car production did not resume until 1947, before which the factories had been badly damaged by Allied bombings, and production assets for the Opel Kadett had been seized by the Soviets as war reparations. This Kadett was the basis for the Soviet Moskvitch 400/420 automobile design.

GM regained control of Opel in 1948, and the Rüsselsheim factory was rebuilt in 1950. In 1962, the company's 100th year, a new factory was opened in Bochum, initially for production of the revived Kadett.^[4] By 1972, Opel was once again Germany's largest car maker.

In 1982, another new factory was opened in Figueruelas, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, initially for production of the Opel Corsa.

Opel worldwide

Many cars sold by General Motors worldwide are Opel engineered vehicles, including such models as the Astra, Corsa, Insignia and Zafira. Opel models are also sold under other GM brand names, such as Vauxhall in the UK, Buick in China and North America and Chevrolet in Latin America. Its Zafira people carrier was sold in Australia badged as a Holden Zafira, while the Astra was sold in the US as the Saturn Astra for model years 2008 to 2009. Other Opel based or slightly modified models sold in the US, include the Buick LaCrosse, Regal, and Chevrolet Cruze.

Opels appeared under their own name in the USA from 1958 to 1975, when they were sold through Buick dealers as captive imports. The best-selling Opel models in the US were the 1964–1972 Opel Kadett, the 1971–1975 Opel Manta, and the now-classic 1968-1973 Opel GT.^[5]^[6] (The name "Opel" was also applied from 1976 to 1980 on vehicles manufactured by Isuzu (similar to the "Isuzu I-mark"), but mechanically those were entirely different cars).

Opel in Europe

Opel vehicles are sold as Vauxhalls in the UK. In other right hand drive markets in Europe, like Ireland, Cyprus and Malta, the main brand name is now Opel. However, many Vauxhall cars are imported second hand from the UK and sold in Ireland.^[7] Vauxhall has rejected this on the grounds that its brand is well known and, in the eighties, there was a preference among fleet buyers, the main customer base at the time, for the Vauxhall brand.

The company headquarters and the largest factory are located in Rüsselsheim. Other Opel plants are in Bochum, Eisenach, and Kaiserslautern, Germany; Vienna/Aspern, Austria; Figueruelas, Zaragoza, Spain; Antwerp, Belgium; and Gliwice, Poland. Opel cars are also made in Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port and Luton plant in the UK.

Opels Int.Technical Development Center (ITDC) in Rüsselsheim, Germany is the research and development center with a responsibility for all global small (Delta platform) and mid-size (Epsilon platform) cars. It is located in Rüsselsheim, Germany, in close neighbourhood with the Rüsselsheim plant. Many of the manufacturing engineering functions are still located within the plant. Currently about 8,000 employees including the hourly workforce for testing facilities and protoype build are working within the ITDC. Engineering staff will count approx. 4,000 including some 1,000 manufacturing engineers.

Around 350 people work in the design center of Opel in Rüsselsheim. Housed in the center of Opels Rüsselsheim campus next to the existing design center building - in what was previously the 'Opel Live' complex - the transformed building expands Opel's design operations to nearly 20,000 square-meters.

Opel announced in April 2008 that it would invest €9 billion by 2012 in a bid to stop the market share erosion in Europe. Approximately €6.5 billion is to be dedicated for the development of new models and engines, with the plants in Rüsselsheim, Bochum, and Kaiserslautern slated to be modernized.^[8]

Some 920,000 Opel/Vauxhall cars, commercial vehicles and component sets were produced in thirteen production and assembly operations in eight countries in Western and Central Europe in 2009.

Opel logo

The lightning bolt on the Opel badging is a reference to the famous Opel Blitz truck (the German word "Blitz" means lightning or flash). The logo was originally a Zeppelin, which became more stylized, and as the Zeppelin became less popular as a form of transport, the logo was changed. There is also a noticeable similarity between the winged Zeppelin and the lightning logo.^[9]

Starting with the Opel Insignia, the Blitz logo will be updated. The border that is circling the lightning bolt will be wider to incorporate the Opel name, and the surfaces will be more spherical to give the logo a three-dimensional look.^[10]

New Opel

In early 2009, the future of Opel was thrown into uncertainty as the global financial crisis drove GM towards bankruptcy. New Opel (Opel plus Vauxhall, minus Saab),^[11] was controlled by a trustee, with a controlling board made up of representatives from GM, employees and the German Government; the company was subject to a bidding process.

On 10 September 2009, it was announced that Magna, a Canadian automobile parts manufacturer, and Sberbank, a Russian bank, would buy a majority stake (55%) in its European Opel/Vauxhall operations. GM would own 35% of Opel; while Opel employees will own 10%. The agreement would have kept Opel as a fully integrated part of GM’s global product development organization.

However, on 3 November 2009, the GM board called off the Magna deal after coming to the conclusion that Opel was crucial to GM's global strategy.^[12] On the other hand, this resulted in anger among German officials and Opel employees due to the fact that GM will now have to layoff about 20 percent of Opel’s workforce for restructuring Opel.^[13]