Opel CEO on reaching breakeven in 2016: 'We can see the target now'

Automotive News

This is the year you expect Opel to a financial break-even point after more than a decade of losses, and investment fruitful parent GM's huge in the European division. Says Karl-Thomas Neumann, who next month will celebrate the beginning of the fourth year as chief executive of Opel, it has hit the automotive industry all internal goals since his arrival. He said he is confident that 2016 will be a success. Newman said, however, that the final miles of any race is always the hardest. Talk with cars Europe News editor Luca Ciferri, managing editor Douglas A. Bolduc and correspondent Christiane HETZNER in last month's Detroit auto show. How are you progressing on your target to reach the break-even point this year? Since I arrived here we've met our budget [internal] and overachieved on our goals 11/4 respectively for. I always compare it with the marathon, as well as you go, the harder it gets. We can see now the target. We have built a brand. We have a great product. We will fight for the final miles and cross the finish line. During the first nine months of 2015 net pricing improved it 700 million euros. How? We are selling more options and trim lines, as is the case with the new Astra. Secondly, we are doing less tactical spending [offer discounts and incentives. We will have more growth than we had spent more [incentives] on cars. How much is GM contribute to the financing of Opel 2022 work plan? 4000000000 € predecessor called until the end of this year. We have not updated since [April 2013]. But it was huge. General Motors is investing a lot to our growth, to a new product, and we want to really bring Opel to sustainable stable position in Europe. Not the car market in Europe is structurally spread on the profit margins are very low, even in good years? We reduced cost a lot, and we will do a little more, but this is not the way to get there. We can only get there with growth. So we are investing in adding 29 new cars by 2020, and these cars must help us to get a market share of 8 percent in 2022. We are then in a much better position to our plants will be used much better. All new cars have now sitting on any GM or PSA global architectures with a uniform standard components. And this size will cost us to a situation where we can achieve margin EBIT 5 percent in 2022. What can you tell us about your next two grand launch, Meriva and Zafira small? It will be supported by both platforms of PSA / Peugeot Citroen. We need something that is a little more hip than the current Zafira Tourer, so it will put all of the models and more from the intersection of lifestyle when they come in later this decade. The cooperation PSA survive the first product cycle? Absolutely. Our goal is to learn how to be successful together and then we can talk about the future. My first priority, however, is always to find synergies within GM, but if we did not have them, then find them with PSA is better than no model put option. In the beginning we wanted to do some major car we have along with the PSA, but this may change. However, we will do the cars with PSA if we did not have the structure in the General Motors group, as is the case with this transit because it is something European. PSA's now talking about the next phase of the coalition? There are always a number of topics we discuss what can be done together, so we see potential. But the focus is on providing now, and that will be the proof that this partnership works. Meet coach Name: Carl Thomas Newman Title: CEO Opel Group Age: 54 Key challenges: Place Opel on the right track to achieve margin EBIT 5 percent by 2022. How do you think that the leadership form an independent movement? We see the potential for much more in a commercial area, such as car sharing, for example, in terms of growth restrictions for companies such as Uber or Lyft find enough drivers. A car without a driver for a company like this is very high value, which is why GM 500 million invested in $ Lyft. Opel will provide completely independent car by 2020? I'm still hesitant to give you a time frame. Moreover, I do not think is the Opel brand to lead this. Our mission is to make sure existing technologies are moving as quickly as possible and affordably as possible in our cars. What do you see the rate of absorption for your digital OnStar concierge service? Almost every second Opel sold today comes with OnStar. Some people also choose an option. I expect by the end of 2016 we will have about half a million OnStar customers and by the end of next year, we have 1.2 million people.

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