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Opel considers building the Astra in the US
By Yoann Besnard on 14 December 2007 | 
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Due to go on sale from next January, the new Saturn Astra, a re-badged Opel compact car, has been well acclaimed by the American press and Opel is seriously considering producing the model in the US.
The German car maker plans to sell 40,000 vehicles there next year, half of the outgoing model Ion, but if there was a stronger demand for compact cars on the US market, Opel would be ready to move the production from Antwerp to the US. Indeed, the weak dollar will likely reduce the profit margin per car and building there would reduce the currency fluctuations.
The Opel CEO Hans Demant said that Opel would need to sell at least 250,000 cars there to justify building a new production facility. The future Insignia might help, but it would cannibalise the recently launched Aura model derived from the current Vectra. So, Opel needs to think of another model. What do you think of the Corsa?
