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Florian Huettl, Managing Director of Opel Automobile GmbH, stands in front of an Opel brand logo at the company’s headquarters. The new boss of German car manufacturer, Florian Huettl, expects higher sales this year after a drop in 2022. Arne Dedert/dpa
The new boss of German car manufacturer Opel, Florian Huettl, expects higher sales this year after a drop in 2022.
“It is paying off that Opel is fully committed to electric drives,” the chief executive told dpa at the company’s headquarters in Rüsselsheim, near the western city of Frankfurt.
He said the compact Astra model, which will be on sale for a full year for the first time in 2023 and becomes available to order in a fully electric version from spring, will contribute to the sales increase.
Last year, the Stellantis subsidiary said it had not been able to realize its full potential, partly because of a shortage of parts.
“Many customers are still waiting for their car,” Huettl said. “I’m sure 2023 will be better in terms of component availability and logistics capacity.”
In 2022, just over 4280,00 new passenger cars were registered by the only German brand in the Stellantis Group in Europe, a drop of 12%. Market share fell 0.3 percentage points to 3.8%, according to European car association ACEA.
Stellantis itself, which was merged from the manufacturers PSA and Fiat-Chrysler, had presented strong figures on Wednesday. With record sales of almost €180 billion ($190 billion), Europe’s second-largest car group behind Volkswagen made a bottom-line profit of €17 billion.
Huettl, who was name Opel CEO last May, did not provide detailed information on the share of the Opel-Vauxhall brand duo in this success. “Opel is sustainably profitable and makes a significant contribution to the group result,” he said.
© DPA
Florian Huettl, Managing Director of Opel Automobile GmbH, stands in front of an Opel brand logo at the company’s headquarters. The new boss of German car manufacturer, Florian Huettl, expects higher sales this year after a drop in 2022. Arne Dedert/dpa