The future production status of the Vauxhall / Opel Corsa is under threat of being shifted away from its German production base. For now the threat is speculative but grounded by union members concerns.
The 2015 Corsa is expected to be heavily revised, however Opel unions have raised their unease over General Motors decision to build the Opel Karl at its South Korean plant.
The Karl is a City car and will go on sale in Europe in the summer of 2015. The Karl will replace the Agila, is based on the Chevrolet Spark chassis and is expected to retail for around £7k.
Opel’s unions argue that GM’s South Korean manufacturing hub is at full capacity and any overflow should spill back into the underutilised German plant in Eisenach.
GM are considering the use of their production base in Zaragoza, Spain to build the sixth generation Corsa when it arrives by 2020. Currently the Corsa is jointly made in Spain and Germany.
Eisenach, which currently builds the Adam minicar, may well loose joint custody of its Corsa production entirely to Zaragoza, the Spanish plant already produces more Corsa’s than originally agreed and Opel’s German unions are seeking clarification to end the uncertainty.
Opel is also producing more car components in Poland in favor of German built components and this has also caused unrest behind the scenes despite the denials by Opel.
The speculation by Opel union representatives is that General Motors is orchestrating a slow and gradual phasing out of its German manufacturing base and moving into territories that offer favorable economies of scale.