Opel’s Spanish, German Plants to Swap Assembly Jobs

MADRID – Opel will transfer production of the next-generation Mokka X small CUV from its plant in Figueruelas, Spain, to its factory in Eisenach, Germany, in 2019.

In return, the Spanish factory will begin exclusively producing the Corsa minicar now assembled in both Eisenach and Figueruelas starting in 2017.

Figueruelas will finish 2016 having built 224,000 Corsas, which have been produced at the plant since 1982. That represents 62% of the car’s full-year output of 360,000 units.

Assembly of the Crossland X, a small urban CUV that will replace the Meriva MPV, also begins in Figuerelas in 2017. The plant will add the Adam minicar to the mix starting in 2019.

The Citroen C3 Picasso mini-MPV, currently assembled in Figueruelas for French automaker PSA Group, will be replaced by a Crossland X clone to be marketed by PSA.

The reorganization of the Opel industrial network in Europe has been planned and decided by parent General Motors in Detroit, not by executives at Opel headquarters in Russhelsheim, Germany. The goal is to improve manufacturing efficiency and improve production synergies involving the new models, says Philip R. Kienle, Opel vice president-manufacturing.

Opel Spain sources have said that with this new focus on increased production of small models, the Figueruelas plant by 2020 could approach its maximum capacity of 500,000 units per year and top the record 489,000 built in 2007.

Figueruelas has run far below capacity since the 2008 financial crisis. The loss of Mokka X production in 2019 should be offset next year by production of all Corsa units and the addition of the Crossland X. It will add the PSA version of the Crossland X in 2018 and the Adam in 2019.