Automotive News Europe - June 2019 - 20

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

EVENTS

Key to Opel's revival: slash and simplify
PETER SIGAL

psigal@autonews.com

back, Opel's perennial best-seller, and
Mokka small SUV, another strong seller.
Both cars will be available with a batteryelectric drivetrain as an option.

pel's turnaround was accomplished
by slashing fixed costs and sharply
simplifying its product portfolio, CEO
Michael Lohscheller said. But he and his
management team employed other levers to get Opel into the black last year.
First, Lohscheller said, he took away
the cookies from every meeting. "It's
symbolic, and better for your health,"
Lohscheller said at the Automotive
News Europe Congress in Gothenburg.
Assuming a more serious tone,
Lohscheller said the first move was to
cut the ranks of upper management by
25 percent. "You have to clean the escalator from the top," he said, citing a German saying. After doing that, Lohscheller said, "People realized this is serious."

ing to PSA architectures from General
Motors platforms. Under GM, Opel had
nine platforms; under PSA, it will have
just two within a few years.

He added that "costs are your best friend"
because they are something the company
can control. For example, Opel's product
costs per vehicle were down 367 euros,
more than half of the 700-euro reduction
under Opel's PACE turnaround plan announced in November 2017. Another key
driver of the turnaround was quickly mov-

Ten engine families are being reduced
to four, Lohscheller said. "That's a massive complexity reduction with huge,
huge benefits," he said. GM-engineered
models such as the Adam minicar will be
phased out. Among the PSA-based models to come in the next 18 months are
the next-generation Corsa small hatch-

Opel CEO Lohscheller says costs are no
problem because they can be controlled.

Opel's transformation is also being propelled by benchmarking, both against
external competitors and within PSA
Group. Lohscheller said he was dismayed at first when he saw how far
behind Opel was compared with PSA's
metrics, but it roused the competitive
spirit of his team.
"Do not underestimate the power of
benchmarking," he said. "We quickly developed plans on how to catch up. And
the Opel people wanted to catch up;
they wanted to be better."
Compared with industry benchmarks,
Opel pricing has improved by 2.2 percentage points, Lohscheller said - but
prices are still 6 percentage points below the target.
"On pricing, we're still a bit behind,"
he said, noting that Opel had improved
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channel mix and trim level.

Seat plans more micromobility
products to win younger buyers
ANDREA MALAN

amalan@autonews.com

olkswagen Group's Seat brand is
rolling out a micromobility strategy
to counteract the possible end of the
traditional business model of the car industry, said Lucas Casasnovas, the automaker's head of product marketing.
Seat is working on two micromobility products to follow the launch of the
eXS-KickScooter and the Minimo quadricycle. One of the new products will
be positioned between the scooter and
Minimo. Seat has signed a deal with
Spanish startup UFO to supply 530
scooters for a sharing service in Madrid.
No official date has been given for the
debut of the Minimo, which was unveiled
in Barcelona in February.
The move into micromobility is a must
because the car industry is becoming

"a luxury industry, not accessible for
young people," Casasnovas told the
Automotive News Europe Congress in
Gothenburg. Casasnovas offered some
numbers about the European market,
compiled by Sigma Eurosensor 2018.
New driver's licenses for people under
age 35 have dropped by 50 percent in
the past 10 years.
Car sales to people under 35 also declined by half over the past decade.
Car prices rose 30 percent in 10 years,
partly because of new safety, connectivity and driving-assistance features.
The average age when purchasing a
first new car rose to 38 years from 33.
Behind this trend is the stagnation in
salaries of people under age 25, flat at
1,000 euros per month for the past 10
years, Casasnovas said. Those under

Seat's Casasnovas sees rising car prices
pushing people to new mobility options.
age 35 make less than 2,000 euros a
month. As a result, the average age of
new-car buyers in the EU has risen to
56 years, he said.
The new business model will enable Seat
to offer mobility options to these people.
"If we don't, someone else will do it,"
Casasnovas said. "I'm not referring to
Uber and Lyft, which still buy cars, but
to such players as Lime or Byrd. Those
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companies rent scooters."

Photos: Lars Ardarve
20

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JUNE 2019

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Automotive News Europe - June 2019

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