One Market Is Not Enough

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

Car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer has thought about the future of Opel after a possible return under the GM roof. He does not come to a good result.

According to industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, the US company General Motors (GM) cannot steer the car manufacturer Opel back onto the road to success on its own. "The Opel-GM business model carries a high risk of loss," writes the expert on the automotive industry at the University of Duisburg-Essen in an analysis.

Risk factor: Putin

Opel could not become a profitable company under the umbrella of GM because access to important markets would remain blocked. Dudenhöffer emphasized that a sale to the Canadian-Austrian supplier Magna and the Russian Sberbank meant “significantly less risk” and offered “additional profit potential”. According to the industry expert, Opel, as a 100 percent GM subsidiary, remained closed to the American and Chinese markets because the US company is active there itself. For political reasons, Opel could also be denied access to the important Russian market: “The risk that (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin) will feel fraudulently misled if it is not sold to Magna is high. A fraudulently deceived Putin will almost certainly put insurmountable hurdles in the way of GM and Opel in Russia."

Narrow boundaries

GM would therefore move with Opel exclusively in the saturated European market, which is characterized by fierce cutthroat competition and poor margins. "In the Opel-GM connection, Opel is pushed back to a single market and can therefore not be profitable," stressed Dudenhöffer. The same applies to the entry of the financial investor RHJ International, who wants to cut large investments in order to reduce costs. (dpa)