Opel Eyes 25% Production Boost at Spain Plant in 2015

MADRID – The European auto industry’s recovery slowed in the second half of 2014, but Opel management believes demand will remain steady enough to justify a 25% hike in production at its Figueruelas plant in Zaragoza, Spain.

Output could reach 400,000 units this year, compared with the 2014 total of 319,000 – a 14% improvement over 2013. Figuerelas’s capacity is 450,000 units.

The plant’s recovery has been driven by the assembly launch of three new models, starting in early 2014 with the Meriva small MPV, which also is built in Ruesselsheim, Germany. It was followed in September by the Mokka small SUV that previously had been manufactured in Bupyeong, South Korea; scheduled 2015 Mokka output at Figueruelas is 60,000 units.

Production of the B-segment Corsa, which has garnered more than 55,000 orders even though it hasn’t yet reached dealer showrooms, began in November.

Also in 2015, Figueruelas will start the pre-assembly process of the Citroen C3, a small MPV for the B-segment of the market that will be assembled in a continuation of the collaboration agreement signed in 2013 by Opel parent General Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Figuerelas may be a bright spot for Opel in 2015. The automaker says European deliveries increased 3% year-over-year in 2014, to 1.08 million units, but contracting markets in Russia and Turkey may make it difficult to meet sales targets this year.

“The targets of our ‘Drive 2022 Plan’ are at risk and it is also possible that we will not be able to come back to black numbers in 2016, nor reach a 5% operating margin in 2022, as desired,” Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann warns in a letter to 3,000 management-level employees.

Drive 2022, which includes Figueruelas, was conceived to support the Opel turnaround in Europe and funded with €4 billion ($4.7 billion) in investments to launch 23 new cars and 13 new engines.