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About Opel

Opel began as a sewing-machine company founded by Adam Opel in Russelsheim in 1862, moved on to bicycles, and built its first cars in 1899. By the 1920s it was Germany's largest carmaker and an early adopter of the assembly line, and in 1929 General Motors bought it. For the next nine decades Opel was GM's European engineering center, and its cars, sold in Britain as Vauxhalls, carried the company's fortunes across much of the continent.

Its back catalog is full of cars with cult followings: the Kadett and Rekord that put postwar Germany on wheels, the pert GT with its pop-up headlights, the Manta that became a punchline and a hero in the same breath, and generations of Corsa and Astra that filled company car parks. Opel designs reached America under Buick and Saturn badges at times. The long GM years also brought chronic losses, and in 2017 GM sold Opel and Vauxhall to PSA Group, which later merged with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis.

Under French and then Stellantis management the brand returned to profit and now shares platforms with Peugeot and Citroen. The lineup centers on the Corsa supermini, the Astra hatchback and wagon, the Mokka and Frontera crossovers and the Grandland SUV, most offered with electric versions, and the GSE badge revives a sporting name for performance models. Rivals include Volkswagen, Renault, Skoda and a fast-growing wave of Chinese brands in Europe.

Opel's future depends on decisions made far from Russelsheim: which Stellantis platforms it gets, which factories survive, and how quickly European buyers embrace electric cars. A revived Agila city car, sharing its bones with a small electric Citroen, has been reported as a possibility, and the brand has used concept cars to sketch a sharper design language. The coverage here follows those reveals, Stellantis strategy and factory news, electric model launches, sales performance across Europe, and recall notices affecting Opel and its Vauxhall twins.