If you feel sorry for this old German brand, I wonder if you have ever thought that after 20 years of chaos and error management, existence is its luck. And the current market share is what it deserves.
Mismaagement
Sergio Marchionne scoffed at automobile companies: "Industrials with complex costs, long processes, and overcapacity." But he also believes that an automobile group will only survive after an annual output of 6 million units.
Both are not paradoxes, the management system plays a decisive role. A good management system is exactly what Opel lacks in the general era.
■ Decline vortex
If you have some understanding of Opel's history, you will find that Opel has gone through a process of developing towards low selling prices and repetitive models. From Senator, Omega, Manta to Astra, Corsa, and Insignia, in addition to changes in consumption trends, what happened to General Opel in the past 20 years is a slow process of self-depreciation. The depreciation process of
has transformed the market structure from a large price span and the entire market range to a low price cluster and a single regional market. Opel's sales volume in the early 1990s and its largest market share in Britain and Germany shrank by about 15% to 1 million units, 12% and 8% in 2010.
of that era Opel
is not making money.
Opel has two meanings for general purpose. The European market is one, and the second is the Opel D2XX platform product (Astra-Cruze-Excellence), which accounted for 20% of General Motors' sales at its peak. In addition to being too expensive and the product is on the brink of profitability, this platform also encountered the situation where Buick Chinese models abandoned the platform to develop independently. Both reasons have reduced the importance of Opel. Therefore, general has systematically and slowly restricted Opel's development expenditure for a long time. This has led to a lack of updates on the Opel platform, outdated powertrains, outdated designs and confusing models.
price and volume both decline, making it difficult to reverse.
Then it became like this
Before PSA merged with Opel in 2017, only 25% of Opel employees would recommend their company's products to their relatives and friends; most Opel models were in a state of selling at a reduced price; scrap subsidies became a weapon for Opel sales.
Please think carefully. Only a person who drives a car to scrap will consider Opel, and then what level of consumption power is.
Then it became like this.
endorsed Opel's Dortmund head coach and famous German lecturer in cheap success science Juergen Klopp once said, "Ouel's designers are all blind people."
■ General management system
Unfortunately, it’s not just Opel designers who are blind.
Opel management collectively chose to ignore the general systemic forgetting and complex and arrogant management system.
General management structure in Europe is GM Europe facing General's three major European brands Opel, Vauxhall and SAAB, managing all European factories including Russia. The CEOs of all three brands are co-directors of GM Europe, but the real rights are actually in the hands of the pro-subscribed CEO of GM Europe in Detroit. So the CEO of GM Europe sitting in Zurich seems to be responsible for everything that happens to General Motors in Europe, but in fact he has no understanding of the daily operations of the company.
This is proven in the matter of closing the factory. On one side is the bad factory operation data and costs, and on the other side is the relationship between trade union organizations and governments. GM Europe often uses avoidance and lightness to delay factory closings, or adopts an opaque decision-making process. So much so that online workers at Vauxhall Luton learned about GM Europe's discussion on closing their own factory on the radio. The result of
can be imagined.
Ba平台
In turn, GM Europe has a very limited influence in Detroit.In 2008, the Merkel cabinet led the sale of Opel in Sberbank and Magna . At that time, GM Europe was slow to respond, and the entire negotiations were led by Opel Union President Franz Klaus. The final acquisition was cancelled by Detroit when the government passed, which caused strong dissatisfaction among Opel employees. Frederick Henderson, then president of General Motors, personally went to Lusheim to apologize to Opel employees, but the employees had no sense of trust in the management.
Henderson mentioned at the meeting, "Opp is an important part of the general global strategy."
■ The general cash machine
or it actually means "important cash machine".
It is hard to see that this is a financially difficult company
GM Europe's management team is mainly composed of financial executives. Steve Girsky (formerly Wall Street investment bank, later GM Europe CEO), Michael Lohscheller (formerly Volkswagen Finance, later Opel CEO) and Thomas Sedran (formerly OPEL Strategy, now CARIAD CFO) are all financially born. Compared with production, R&D or procurement executives, financial supervision is obviously the area they are better at.
In 2012, the three people proposed a "DRIVE!Opel 2022" ten-year rejuvenation plan, which mainly includes three points: 1. Increase the car model; 2. Reduce costs; 3. Enter China.
Wow, it is worthy of being a plan made by the finance department, it is so imaginative. The result is that Opel has been in a loss for four consecutive years after the launch of the DRIVE! 2022 strategy.
Karl-Thomas Neumann, who took office as Opel CEO from Volkswagen China in 2013, made it clear: China cannot become Opel's strategic element. In addition to the inescapable brand conflicts, the investment threshold in this market is too high.
KTN-Mary Barra–Dan Ammann
General's capital operation for Opel also proves Opel's ATM treatment. In 2008, Carl Peter Forster, then director of GM Europe, borrowed 1 billion euros from European Investment Bank under the name of Opel, and the money was actually transferred to Detroit. In 2014, Mary Barra, who had just three days in office, reselled GM Europe's 7% PSA shares, and banned Opel from cooperating with PSA, which obviously avoided the joint damage caused by the decline in PSA's performance and the operation of potential buyers to find out their trump card. In 2015, Mary distributed $1.7 billion in debt to Opel.
is worthy of being the General CEO who graduated from General College.
■ Opel’s problem
Opel’s decline also has its own reasons. If Volkswagen is regarded as a benchmark for Opel, then compared with Volkswagen, Opel's fundamental problems are as follows:
· has a high bicycle cost, and the average cost of Opel is about 3,000 euros higher than Volkswagen;
· has too many subdivided models but there are serious shortages of electric vehicles, and the average CO2 index is surprisingly high;
· has a lower market share in the limited market;
· has a higher Fixed cost.
Summary: The model has no advantages and cannot obtain new markets.
PSA Management
In March 2017, Mary sold "an important link in the general global strategy" to PSA.
I believe many people, including me, cannot understand why Carlos Tavares chose to acquire Opel. Whether it is products or markets, Opel and PSA's main brand Peugeot - Citroen have a high overlap. Moreover, Opel's continued decline in sales has not made much contribution to PSA as a whole.
But from another perspective, PSA's acquisition of Opel can reduce a potential competitor, while similar products are easier to integrate, and PSA CEOs only have scale in their eyes. Of course, the most important reason is the price. The transaction price of 1.3 billion euros is only about 50% of the general offer.
It seems that PSA has figured out the value of Opel.
■ Profit is the only redemption
Tavares once said, "A brand that cannot be profitable cannot be redeemed, but I can give Opel time." He must solve the fundamental problem of Opel.
· Reducing Fixed-cost
The easiest way to solve is actually Fixed-cost.After PSA acquired Opel, Opel headquarters, which is only 20 kilometers away from the German airport Frankfurt, no longer has a dedicated airport shuttle bus , and business travelers can only choose to take buses; the vacant land of Opel headquarters was rented to IKEA next to it; a large amount of administrative and procurement costs were integrated into the PSA Group, and suppliers and procurement supervision were completely replaced. The prices of meals in factory restaurants also increased overnight; the number of water dispensers also decreased; and the iPhone of Opel employees quickly became , Samsung mobile phone .
Some of these measures are actually a gesture given to employees by PSA management, but the result of this bottom-to-top cost reduction is that Opel's Fixed-cost has dropped by 28% since 2017.
· Reduce bicycle cost
Opel's higher bicycle cost mainly comes from low production efficiency. Before the integration of
PSA, the average load of the three major Opel vehicle manufacturers Ruesselsheim, Eisenach and Zaragoza was only about 65%, which was below the 80% stop loss line. In addition, Opel Bicycle production beats are relatively long, and the ratio of production volume to the number of employees is much higher than that of PSA. The solution given by
PSA is very simple: ignore the resistance from the trade union organization, permanently close the Kaiserslautern factory with low load, and resolutely shut down instead of suspending the Eisenach factory during COVID-19 ; reorganize the model production line to avoid the occurrence of single-model production lines, so Ruesselsheim, which only produces Astra, may be separated from the PSA group in the future; while reorganizing the production line, compete in the production department, and factories with higher efficiency can obtain the production of new models; transfer the production line to low-cost countries, such as shifting the production of Peugeot 208 to Trnava of Slovak and Kenitra of Morocco .
· Removal of R&D
PSA is almost not abolished but closed for Opel R&D.
All models of Opel are connected to PSA Group products, and its own R&D department ITDC has been dismantled. A large number of development employees are diverted through early retirement, transfer to human resources companies and transferring jobs. In the plan, only 700 employees transferred to the human resources company finally arrived, and a large number of employees chose to leave.
From 2017 to the present, Opel has abolished more than 7,000 jobs.
· Clean up the car model
Opel's model problem is much worse.
Opel Bolt in USA
PSA took over Opel had already stocked up on a large number of older models, with an average age of more than 5 years. In fact, GM had strategically abandoned this brand in the late stage of holding Opel and no longer updated the model sequence. There are three main problems with the outstanding Opper model spectrum:
· lacks SUV models, and the only SUV model is the 2012 Mokka.
· lacks electric models, the only electric vehicle is the Chevrolet Bolt authorized by GM, and there is no PHEV model.
· The power system is out of date, with an average CO2 value of 123g/km, ranking at the end of mainstream brands. After taking over
PSA took over, it quickly made the following operations:
Crossland X
· Quickly import Crossland X on the first generation 2008 and cut off the small MPV Meriva;
· Import Grandland X on 3008, including PHEV models;
· Mokka was discontinued for one year in 2019, and Mokka 3 and Mokka EV were launched the following year;
· No longer develops alternative models of MPV Zafira, using LCV Vivaro-Life replacement;
·LCV Combo is updated quickly, with an OEM Berlingo/Rifter, launching Combo-e;
· Formulate a "100-day plan" to use the PSA's power system to take over the Opel model.
In 2021, Opel's average CO2 value dropped to 104.9g/km, entering the midstream of mainstream brands.
· Market structure
The only thing that has not been changed is Opel's market structure. When
PSA took over, Opel's turnover in the European market accounted for about 90% of its total. Currently, Opel's turnover in the European market accounts for about 98% of its total. Opel relies more on the European market than PSA.
All expansion is a risk for a car brand that needs to survive.
· Clear rewards and punishments
Tavares also has a very thorough change to the Opel management system.The first thing Avares-Lohscheler
PSA did when she took over Opel was to fire Karl-Thomas Neumann (KTN), the then CEO of Opel. The reason is not that Tavares cannot cooperate with KTN, but that when visiting the Opel Zaragoza factory together, the former lacks confidence in the state where KTN only likes to portray the vision but lacks execution.
Of course, KTN severance fee The title of King is not a false reputation. Continental+VW+Opel, a total of more than a small goal of RMB, has exceeded the three consecutive jobs and has not hesitated to offer him generous severance fee and let him leave, which explains some problems.
In contrast, Christian Mueller, former head of Opel's R&D department who successfully implemented the "100-day plan", was transferred to the PSA Group R&D Center to be responsible for the development of the power system.
Finally, Opel cleaned up 25% of its management positions.
new Mokka
Having said so much, let’s take a look at the important model of Opel in the PSA era.
As a small SUV, the first generation Mokka has leading concepts and designs. It was not until five years after its launch that Volkswagen launched the small SUV T-Roc/T-Cross. Mokka is sold as Buick Encore in the country and is one of the first batch of joint venture brand small SUVs. The sales performance of this model in Europe and China is not very good, because it has not crossed the price hurdle.
2020, Opel got the brand new Mokka for the CMP platform. Judging from this car, PSA positioned Opel as:
· to maintain Opel's brand attributes;
· to strive to compress cost space.
PSA has indeed done it.
■ exterior decoration
above two positionings make internal and external decoration design the only way for Mokka to maintain Opel brand attributes.
The towering and mighty front is the biggest feature of Mokka. It is combined with the rapidly falling contrasting roof and the extremely small rear suspension to give the body a sense of integrity with the center of gravity facing backwards. The headlights running through the left and right and closed center grille are Opel's design style "Vizor", and so are the new generation Astra. Mokka's headlights are available in two configurations: high and low, high-end features with matrix function, and Opel's signature configuration. The shape of
brings two problems:
· Due to the unified Front-End component of the CMP platform, Opel cannot adopt a large number of design changes for the towering hood. The layout and number of hood anchor points cause greater vibrations on the hood, and the vibration of the hood can be seen at high speed.
· rear row vision is adversely affected by the falling window line. Considering that the rear row of this model is of low importance, this seems to be ignored. The exterior of
Mokka does not lack design details. For example, plastic wheel arch shape and colorful chrome strips above the window frame. I personally like the shape of the bottom of the car door very much. I simply use a anti-scratch strip across the door and the threshold to form a simple but good-effect hollow shape.
Mokka EV, contrasting color cover
Mokka's car paint color selection is quite bold, there are 6 different paint colors in total, matcha green and pearl blue are popular colors nowadays. The highlight of the color matching is that you can choose from black metal paint roof and cover, and the contrasting cover is particularly eye-catching. The test car is equipped with a pearl blue, black roof and black trim package, which includes black logos, trim strips and rims.
But cost considerations are undoubtedly revealed in the details of appearance.
Filling between the front door and the fender
The quality of the body sheet metal is unsatisfactory, the gap width difference is very obvious, and the filler between the front door and the fender is uneven, resulting in continuous interference and abnormal noise when opening and closing doors. The material of the plastic board on the door or the nesting structure behind the door is not adaptable to temperature, and there is an interference fit. One side of the door joint has been raised, which will hinder the opening of the rear door.
■ sitting position
front shape raises the engine cover and also makes the position of the instrument panel higher. A higher instrument panel can create a sense of security, but forward vision is a big problem. The hood occupies a large part of the field of view, forming a large blind spot. The position of the front of the car can only be judged by the shape line in the center of the hood.
Door sill height
Mokka has a thick door frame to ensure side collision performance, so the threshold is high and wide, and the interior space needs to be achieved through a lower floor, so you have to deliberately step on your legs when getting on the car. The structure of the front longitudinal beam of
has also been greatly improved. As the firewall moves backward, the floor slope on the co-pilot side is very large. It's not a big problem, but the longitudinal size is slightly insufficient, and the occupants are knee-bending, so the lower half of the center console also becomes very steep.
■ Interior
Mokka interior design is not out of order, the area is clear and easy to operate. A lot of decorations have been added to enhance the design, such as red trim, patterned PVC boards, etc. But the small hat brim on the dashboard seems to be a bit unconsidered. It may be that the brightness of the LCD screen of the dashboard is limited, and a brim of the shade is necessary.
The same design also appeared on Astra and the facelift Grandland.
interior has a clear pursuit of cost. Hard plastic is not a big problem, but the unevenly coated seat fabric and seat slides only have plastic snaps at the rear end are obviously cost considerations. The independent design of the
interior will not remind people of too many PSA products. But if you look closely, you will still find many general-purpose parts, such as seats, windows and sunroof control modules, door handles, pedals, and internal and external rearview mirrors. The main problem with the interior of
is the floor.
The structure of the platform is a bit too simple, lacking hierarchy and storage space, and the functional area segmentation is also very vague. The function buttons are arranged scattered on a whole panel, with the buttons not positioned well and the size is small. The use of polished black plastic trim in the operating area is not a good design, it is easy to cause stains and scratches and will produce reflection under strong light. Also unreasonable is the position of the engine start button - the position is hidden and small in size, so it cannot be operated blindly. I don’t understand why a 100% keyless start model has such a design.
■ electronic appliances
Opel's electronic appliance system structure cannot escape PSA, but it still strives to make differences in HMI. Although the operating logic of a large number of menu pages in the central control screen still reminds people of Peugeot's car computers. This set of car machines can basically meet daily needs, but the expectations should not be too high.
For example, the address search results of the navigation system are very outrageous. The sizes of the LCD instrument panel and the central control screen are 12 inches and 10 inches respectively. The overall quality of the instrument panel screen is acceptable. Black is the background color and can provide sufficient contrast at high brightness, although there is a significant light leakage in the black background at night. The scene of the dashboard is relatively simple, the only few presets are also quite monotonous, a large number of blank areas do not support custom information, and the size and selection of fonts are also worth discussing.
What makes people angry is the logic of several functions of Mokka.
The electronic shift lever from PSA is clear logic, but there are no two-stage key positions. It is easy to operate incorrectly by relying solely on the key stroke. The P-speed button is small in size, and the lever is embedded in the panel, making it impossible to blindly move the gear shift. In terms of operation logic, this shift lever is extremely sensitive to the judgment of vehicle speed. There is no fault tolerance space for vehicle speed. There is only when the vehicle speed drops back to 0. The function protection settings are too strong and the operation is inconvenient.
Gate control has many problems
There are some problems with the cooperation between driving computers and gate control. When Cl.30 is powered on, it cannot directly close Cl.30 from the outside of the car or open the suitcase through the remote control of the key; the layout of the key sensing device in the car is unreasonable, and the key cannot be recognized and the engine cannot be started, so you need to press and hold the start button frequently.
What is surprising is that the same situation also occurs when the engine is turned off. I wonder if the start button has a protective setting for the operation time or the contact of the ignition button is problematic, and the signal cannot be transmitted normally. Some functions of
exceed expectations, such as turning on the rear fog light will automatically lock the high beam. It is a rare function, but it is logically very reasonable.
■ configuration and price
Mokka's production location was moved from Lussheim to Poissy in France, which is collinear with the 2008, C4, and DS 3 on the same platform. As the parent factory of PSA, Poissy has the best production cost and efficiency in PSA, and is suitable for low-cost models.
should have realistic expectations for assembly quality when pressing costs. Fortunately, Opel was also famous for its poor assembly.
Mokka has three model configurations in Europe, Elegance, GS-Line, and Ultimate. The list of optional configurations is very short, and the main differences are driver assistance systems, car paint and navigation systems. The starting price of Mokka is 25,800 euros, which is between Volkswagen T-Cross and T-Roc.
fills the gap between the cheap-looking T-Cross and the more expensive T-Roc.
Mokka EV uses 50kWh CATL battery pack, and the assembly of modules and battery packs may be completed by other PSA suppliers. The range is nominal 330 kilometers and the starting price is 37,600 euros.
■ power system and power system that operates
Mokka use PSA mature solutions.
· Power and fuel consumption
Mokka has 1.2T inline three-cylinder gasoline and 1.5T inline four-cylinder diesel two engines, 6MT and 8AT transmissions, and a driving method for the front wheels. Among them, 8AT is only equipped with 1.2T high-power models, and the other models are priced, so they are only 6MT. The
test car uses a power combination of 1.2-liter gasoline engine + 8AT, which is the main power configuration of PSA Group, with an annual output of more than 1 million units. This engine launched in 2014 has three power levels, 74kW/96kW/115kW, and the 115kW model has been abolished. In addition to adding GPF, the technical configuration of the engine has basically remained in the last decade: 200 bar direct injection in cylinder, timing adjustment of intake and exhaust valves, compression ratio 10.5:1, electronically controlled turbine exhaust valve, variable displacement oil pump . The nearly identical torque values of the three versions prove that the differences between the three engines are mainly some additional devices and costs.
test car uses a 96kW version. The torque characteristics of the
engine are satisfactory, and there is no problem of frequent shifting to match the working conditions. Therefore, the transmission can keep the clutch locked for a long time, ensuring fuel consumption.
Aixin 8AT is conscientious, but there are many adaptation problems. For example, when the R-D torque converter guide wheel switches direction, there will be a very obvious problem of breaking and power connection; there is also a fuel injection control strategy for starting and stopping. The fuel injection volume is large during startup, and the vehicle will suddenly rush forward, which is an old problem with the power system. The fuel consumption of
Mokka is satisfactory. The pure high-speed fuel consumption remains at 6 liters/100 kilometers without luggage. The comprehensive fuel consumption of city + high-speed is about 6.5 liters, similar to the sedan 308.
· Steering control and NVH
A model that pursues cost does not need to discuss too much control, not to mention that Opel itself does not have clear characteristics for handling. The RP-EPS steering machine is set up in a relatively mediocre way, the gear ratio is not fast or slow, the assist is not big or small, and there are not many characteristics. The only problem is that the steering assist characteristics vary with the angle are unclear. The universal Opel steering wheel used in
looks slightly larger on the Mokka, but the operating area allocation is more reasonable than the small steering wheel of the PSA. There is no problem in calibration of
suspension, which is sufficient for daily use needs, and the vehicle's characteristics are stable and convergent. Before using the brake, the ventilation disk is configured with solid disk after , and the performance is average. The rear axle drag arm of the CMP platform solves the problem of yaw angle when the body moves vertically, and the stability of the rear axle is significantly improved compared with the PF platform. The rear axle hub adopts a hollow light design.
PSA's three-cylinder engine has achieved excellent NVH performance, and there will be no obvious vibrations in the full speed stage. The pedal, steering column and the seat are set accordingly. Even if the vibration of the floor and the body can be sensed at idle speed, it becomes difficult to detect after being transmitted to the seat.
transmission also has some adjustments for NVH, such as deliberately controlling the gear to avoid the engine entering certain bad working conditions, and 95 km/h will not enter 8 gear.The problems that occur in
are not only matched by the engine and the transmission, but also the layout of the exhaust system and the thinner floor without insulation cotton also make the floor on the rear co-pilot side easily heated by the exhaust system and overheating. In addition, the fuel tank also maintains Opel's old tradition and does not return to the position after filling the gas.
Overall, Mokka has achieved a good balance in cost-effectiveness, and has successfully concealed its relationship with PSA products, making it a successful model.
Conclusion
From the perspective of Mokka, Opel has reached a balance to some extent, and there are no traces of OEM PSA, and there are many compromises in cost. Considering that the impact of the new crown epidemic on Opel's sales is far greater than that of other brands in the industry, the dealer network is also disappearing at a visible speed, with sales like a mountain pressing on Opel's head. Opel's sales in Germany are even less than , Renault . It is too early to say that Tavares' successful rescue of Opel. But it is obvious that relying on PSA's governance, Opel has escaped the previous vortex of decline.
As for the German Engineering you imagine, Tavares seems vague. Perhaps in his opinion, this is an expensive label that is out of the actual situation of Opel.
Maybe the new Opel is just a flash in the pan, and the magician will have a day of talent.
text｜Allen
pictures｜Allen network
