A New City Car from Opel

Opel has got its new owners, Magna, and it is set to launch a new city car for the European customers. Europe is witnessing a boom in the A-car segment and there are several competitors vying for their due market share. According to Opel’s brand's marketing director, Alain Visser, the company will launch the car in partnership with another car manufacturer to get better return on investment. It currently has similar partnership with Suzuki in Europe to manufacture and market its other small car Agila in the European countries. It intends to sign similar deals for other Suzuki cars like Splash.

“This is the most difficult segment in the market to make money, so it's where many automakers join forces,” he said. He added that Opel would be willing to talk to other manufacturers, but didn’t confirm whether any talks had taken place. “We could start production of a minicar in 2012,” he said, adding that Magna had already set aside 250 million euro (£235m) for the project. The new car is expected to be smaller than Agila and Trixx 3+1 concept.

There are several joint ventures in this segment in Europe where auto manufacturers tie-up to manufacture and market small cars. Peugeot, Citroen, Toyota have similar venture as well as 107-Aygo-C1 and Ford Fiat to build Ka 500.

• 9 millionth unit of Opel Corsa rolled-out from Zaragoza plant           November 08, 2011
• Opel Corsa Colour Race           January 20, 2010
• New Hybrids from Opel in Five Years           December 17, 2009
• A New City Car from Opel           October 16, 2009