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Opel not planning Dacia rival, will make sub-Adam vehicle

A day after General Motors announced that it was consolidating its European operations under Opel, its boss has clarified the company's position on producing a rival to low cost brands, such as Dacia and Datsun.


After GM's announcement that it had moved all of its European operations, including Chevrolet in Russia, to the recently created Opel Group, rumours began to swirl that Opel was planning a low-cost rival to the Dacia range.

Today Opel CEO Karl-Thomass Neumann clarified his company's plans via his Twitter account.

"Opel will not move into the low-budget segment. We leave this place to others! We're planning a new entry level model! No budget car, but a real Opel (quality, innovation, German engineering)!" he tweeted.

Auto Express anticipates that this sub-Adam vehicle will retail for around 7000 pounds ($12,600). To put that in context, the Vauxhall Adam starts at 11,455 pounds ($20,650), while in UK the Dacia range kicks off with the Sandero hatch at 5955 pounds ($10,750).

Neumann also addressed a report in Automotive News where it was claimed that Opel was planning to kill off its version of the Volt, the Ampera, due to lacklustre sales across Europe.

Via Twitter Neumann stated: "Our next electric vehicle will be part of our massive product offensive — with 27 new vehicles in the 2014-2018 time frame. After the eventual run-out of the current generation Ampera, we'll introduce a successor product in the electric vehicle segment."

It's not clear whether the Ampera's eventual successor will be a range extended EV, like the Volt and Ampera, or a pure electric car, such as the Chevrolet Spark EV.

With Opel's exit from the Australian market last year, Holden has begun adding some niche Opel models to its product range, including the Cascada convertible, Astra VXR hot hatch and Insignia VXR sports sedan.

As we reported earlier, it's likely that Holden will pivot its mainstream line-up from being primarily South Korean-built Chevrolet models to a European-engineered Opel vehicles. This is likely to begin with the next generation Astra range.

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