GM Inside sull'addio di chevrolet all'Europa

interessante editoriale di GM Inside:

Late last year, General Motors sent a relative shock through the auto industry by announcing that Chevy, it’s best selling brand globally, would be removed from most European markets beginning in 2015 and ending by 2016. At the time, GM spun its decision to do so on the thought that the brand competed, stole sales from Opel, and added complexity to GM Europe’s operations.

With markets reporting up until April of this year, Chevy’s pullout of Europe has actually already started, months ahead of the announced date. All across Europe, markets are reporting Chevy losses of in some cases over 90-%, indicating shipments to dealers have stopped.

Chevy sales in April alone were down 73.7-% according to ACEA.

According to GM’s belief, Opel and Vauxhall should be gaining those sales back. There belief is that a Chevy buyer would in most cases switch to the comparable Opel or Vauxhall vehicle due to some mythical locality to GM. Well, unsurprisingly, this is not happening.

From January to April of this year, GM Europe has lost 0.3 percent market share in passenger sales to 7.4 percent (not including commercial vehicle sales). At first, one might think that is not bad and could be easily made up by the end of the year and/or with new product. If you dig deeper however, things are getting much worse for the Chevy sales plunge did not truly start until March.

Taking April by itself, the first full month of harsh Chevy decline, GM Europe’s passenger vehicle market share tanked 0.7 percent to 6.8 percent. Chevy’s market share alone collapsed from 1.2 to 0.3 percent. Opel/Vauxhall’s market share only rose 0.2 to 6.5 percent in April. Note that the rise is smaller that Chevy’s leftover market share.

GM Europe total passenger sales for April were down 5.5 percent in a market that increased 4.2 percent. With limited sales already reporting for Europe in May, these same trends appear to be holding.

Worst yet, GM has fallen to fifth place in overall passenger sales to Ford. Though one should note that Ford was likely ahead last year when commercial sales are accounted for.

What GM will tell you is that they are planning a new vehicle onslaught that will help Opel/Vauxhall gain back the market share that the Chevy pullout lost. These vehicles include the new Spark based “Agila” (some other names have been talked about), Vivaro, Astra, and Corsa.

The new Astra and Agila should help a little bit but there are already problems with their product cadence. The Vivaro is nothing but a Renault rebadge. It has never sold near the top of its class for that very reason.

The worst is the Corsa, which will be facelifted either later this year or next. The Corsa is already a dinosaur in a segment filled with newer entrants. Whether it is the 208, Clio, Fiesta, or Polo, all now outsell the Corsa due to its age and competiveness. This age that will not be hidden with the nip tuck. You can blame the failure on their not being an all-new Corsa on the failed PSA agreement.

By the time the Corsa is all-new a few years from now, both the Fiesta and Polo will have had TWO all-new generations within its lifetime.

Opel/Vauxhall believes that their product cadence is not only enough to stop the bleeding, but will allow them to slowly creep up to the number two best selling brand with a few years. However, the problem is that their competitors, mainly the nearest market share rivals, Ford and FCA, have a bigger product cadence over the next few years than Opel/Vauxhall does. Ford and FCA currently have market shares of 7.5 and 6.1 percent respectively in passenger vehicle sales.

Ford’s product push has already begun with their new Transit lines and EcoSport. FCA’s is about to begin with most of their brands adding new volume models like the Renegade and 500X.

Even more damaging to GM Europe, Ford and FCA have nearly completed their European operations’ turnaround by shutting down plants that were no longer needed. Opel is still years away from completing this process. This process will continue to have negative effects on PR, and therefore sales, until that process is completed. It is very likely that GM Europe could fall to sixth place behind FCA shortly. It is even more likely when you account for commercial sales, a huge Fiat market.

Another point that needs to be made is what this pullout will do to Chevy’s lineup. Some Chevy models relied on European sales for their business model. The Orlando sold most of its units in the Old World. Without those sales to back the model, it is now likely unprofitable (if it was ever profitable). If the loss leads to the model’s extinction, it will lead to Chevy not having an entry into the segment in the nations where it still exists. Even the Spark saw major sales in Europe. At one time it was the best selling vehicle in city-car loving Denmark. The loss of volume will have a domino effect through the models affected.

The point of bringing this information to you is that GM’s plan to pull their “Global” brand out of Europe is/was foolhardy. Chevy should have double-downed in Europe as a lower end brand to compliment Opel/Vauxhall. GM will lose sales and market share that it will not gain back anytime soon and especially not with their current/planned product portfolio. GM ended up wasting countless billions on Chevy Europe and has nothing to show for it except a lower market share than when they introduced Chevy in 2005. It will certainly not help GM Europe regain competitiveness or profitability, which it has not seen since 1999.

In the end, GM’s problem is that they see customers as “GM buyers” and not “Opel/Vauxhall buyers” and “Chevy buyers.” It is a basic egotistical sickness that plagues the company within itself.

Sono proprio dei fenomeni. Dovrebbero fare i complimenti agli analisti per le loro previsioni.

non ne hanno azzeccata una..
questo articolo ha smontato e ridicolizzato con dati reali tutte le scelte della gm degli ultimi anni!

E' un peccato, io intanto di chevy ne vedo in giro tante della aveo 2011.
Di svariati tipi, insomma è sempre meglio vedere un aveo in giro che una opel corsa.Inguardabile sta macchina. forse un po' dietro, per il resto fa cagare.
L'Aveo sembra dietro una mercedes e davanti un muso tutto cattivo, aggressivo.
Poi per quello che costa la macchina, insomma Chevrolet sta veramente sbagliando.
Certo certe macchine passate o ti piacevano e la compravi o niente da fare.
L'Aveo
la Cruze entrambe i modelli
La Captiva
La MALIBU
Trax
insomma a parte la Spark che fa cagare un pochettino, ma si può sempre migliorare,per il resto ci siamo con i modelli.
Io ci spero che resti fino alla fine
Poi non ho menzionato gli altri modelli poco accessibili a noi comuni mortali, insomma non capisco, ma spero che resti.

eh si. peccato che i nuovi motori gm non li proveremo mai su auto belle da vedere come le chevrolet ma solo su cessi abominevoli quanto costosi targati opel. insigna a astra gtc a parte forse.

dopo l'ultima promozione Chevrolet, in particolare sulle Aveo, per averle a tasso 0 ne ho decisamente (e finalmente) viste molte di più in giro per strada. dalle parti dove lavoro io si vedono parecchie Cruze e Captiva (c'è un concessionario molto conosciuto della zona che vendeva principalmente Chevrolet) e proprio quando GM ha deciso di togliere il marchio dall'europa si stava cominciando a popolare di Trax, a mio parere stupenda!! purtroppo non si può fare nulla per tornare indietro.... certo che mi spiace veramente tantissimo, in questo potevamo imparare dagli Americani e allargare il mercato di queste auto a dir poco fantastiche, almeno esteticamente !!

Scelta di mercato per non chiudere OPEL, dove i modelli fan cagare, per ora il motore va!
Vi ricordo che anche se sul motore sotto al cofano c'è scritto Chevrolet , il motore è opel e per l'esattezza è quello che monta la opel corsa.
Bho! Per ora va come dicevo, ma sono scettico.

Dalle mie parti quando scendo dai miei ne girano davvero poco e talmente un numero esiguo che essendo una americana di marchio con quel frontale, l'ammirano come se avessi una Porsche!
Curiosità o altro, la macchina dicono che è bella da vedere!