In the future, German automaker Opel is to produce an all-electric car model in Eisenach, a city in the eastern German state of Thuringia. Starting in the second half of 2024, the electronic successor to the Grandland SUV is to be built there, Opel CEO Florian Huettl announced.
This would give the Eisenach factory clear prospects for the future, he said. The Opel parent company Stellantis plans to invest around 130 million euros in the coming months and years. Huettel said that the decision is also another important step for Opel on the way to its declared goal of becoming a purely electric brand in Europe by 2028.
According to Opel, around 1,200 employees in Eisenach are currently working two shifts to produce the Grandland SUV as a plug-in hybrid as well as with classic combustion engines. The production allocation for the successor vehicle now also brings sustainable capacity utilization to the site in the long term, Huettl emphasized.
Opel plans to produce the model for seven to eight years. The new Grandland will be built in the state of Thuringia in an electric variant as well as a plug-in hybrid, Huettl said. "We think hybrid is an excellent transitional technology for which there is also great demand in Europe and worldwide."
The Opel CEO pointed out that the Stellantis subsidiary has succeeded in making the transition to electric mobility at its three German plants at a record pace. This applies to the joint ventures for lithium extraction in the Rhine Valley (Switzerland), battery cell production in Kaiserslautern (southwestern Germany), and car production in Rüsselsheim (near Frankfurt) and Eisenach (central Germany), he said.
"In 2022, we could increase our sales of battery electric vehicles by 52 percent worldwide," the Opel CEO reported. About one in five Opels sold in Germany is already a pure electric vehicle, he said. However, Huettl addressed politicians, saying that the infrastructure must also keep pace with the production of electric cars.
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