Opel

Opel (Opel, pronounced [ˈoːpl̩]) is a German automobile manufacturer, subsidiary of French automaker Groupe PSA since August 2017. From 1929 until 2017, Opel was owned by American automaker General Motors. Opel vehicles are sold in the United Kingdom under the Vauxhall brand.

Opel traces its roots to a sewing machine manufacturer founded by Adam Opel in 1862 in Rüsselsheim am Main. The company began manufacturing bicycles in 1886 and produced its first automobile in 1899. After listing on the stock market in 1929, General Motors took a majority stake in Opel and then full control in 1931, establishing the American reign over the German automaker for nearly 90 years.

In March 2017, Groupe PSA agreed to acquire Opel from General Motors for €2.2 billion, making the French automaker the second biggest in Europe, after Volkswagen.

Opel is headquartered in Rüsselsheim am Main, Hesse, Germany. The company designs, engineers, manufactures and distributes Opel-branded passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and vehicle parts and together with its British sister brand Vauxhall they are present in over 50 countries around the world.

Company
Opel operates 10 vehicle, powertrain, and component plants and four development and test centres in six countries, and employs around 35,000 people in Europe. The brand sells vehicles in more than 50 markets worldwide. Other plants are in Eisenach and Kaiserslautern, Germany; Szentgotthárd, Hungary; Zaragoza, Spain; Gliwice, and Tychy, Poland; Saint Petersburg, Russia; Ellesmere Port, and Luton, Great Britain. The Dudenhofen Test Center is located near the company's headquarters and is responsible for all technical testing and vehicle validations.

Around 6,250 people are responsible for the engineering and design of Opel/Vauxhall vehicles at the International Technical Development Center and European Design Center in Rüsselsheim. All in all, Opel plays an important role in the global GM corporate group. The company was responsible for primary engineering of the Epsilon (I) platform, Epsilon II platform, Delta (I) platform, Delta (II) platform, and Gamma platform, and played an important role in the development of especially the higher-end, more-refined version of the Gamma II platform. General Motors' new global platform D2xx is being mainly engineered by Opel, as well.

Opel is in most cases fully responsible for the car architectures and technologies up to the Opel Insignia/Buick Regal. In particular, many of the future-oriented, modern, fuel-efficient GM architectures for compact vehicles are developed by Opel.

Even the idea and concept behind the Ampera was rooted in Opel with Frank Weber, the former Global Vehicle Line Executive and Global Chief Engineer electric vehicle development, being originally an Opel employee who was moved to the United States to advance the development of this concept in GM's home country instead of the German outpost that is Opel. In 2009, Weber returned during the reorganisation of the Opel leadership to Adam Opel GmbH as Vice-President Planning and Commercial Vehicle Operations for the company. In 2011, Frank Weber left Opel for BMW.

Opel established the Opel Performance Center in 1997, which is responsible for the development of high-performance cars such as the Astra OPC, Corsa OPC, and Insignia OPC. The OPC name is also used in some motorsport activities.

Opel Special Vehicles (OSV) is a wholly owned subsidiary that offers public authority and special-purpose vehicles. OSV developed in co-operation with the International Technical Development Center the Opel Zafira B 1.6 CNG (compressed natural gas).

Opel Group GmbH is responsible for the operation of General Motors businesses in Europe.
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