Tag Archives: karl-friedrich stracke

Opel Woes Continue as EU Auto Sales Decline In April. Latest Turnaround Plan Faces Fierce Union Fight over Plant Closings

Worrisome for GM shareholders, including the U.S. taxpayers who still own 32% of the world’s largest, but only marginally profitable, automaker after a $50 billion bailout, Stracke told employees that Opel will stay with existing labor agreements through 2014. With the European auto market headed for its fifth straight year of sales declines and with no upturn predicted for years, it’s impossible to see how Opel will cease being a drag on GM earnings. Continue reading

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General Motors Announces EcoCar2 at SAE World Congress

In a sign of how the U.S. no longer occupies the predominate position it once held in automotive engineering, LG Chem ,a Korean company that supplies the lithium-ion cells used in the Chevrolet Volt, will be event’s tier one strategic partner. Continue reading

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Karl-Friedrich Stracke Confirmed as Opel Vauxhall CEO

Last year the German government – facing a taxpayer revolt and big deficits that foreshadowed the current budget turmoil in the United States – refused to provide €1.1 billion in subsidies that GM wanted for Opel, saying the company had enough cash to keep Opel running. Continue reading

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Opel Shuts German, Spanish plants for Japanese Parts Shortage; Management Shifts as Stracke Returns as Opel CEO

There is a certain amount of friction between Opel and Chevrolet factions inside GM as both brands compete for the same customers, and Chevrolet increasingly turns to GM’s Korean subsidiary Daewoo as a source for small cars that Opel once designed exclusively. Opel’s future is clearly as a regional European brand in a market where it is struggling. Continue reading

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