GM Europe

General Motors Europe

Former type	Subsidiary of General Motors
Industry	Automotive
Successor	Opel Group
Founded	April 4, 1986
Defunct	2010
Headquarters	Zurich, Switzerland
Number of locations	14 manufacturing facilities in nine countries
Area served	Europe
Key people	Nick Reilly, CEO
Products	Automobiles Commercial vehicles
Services	Vehicle financing Vehicle insurance
Number of employees	54,500 (2009)
Parent	General Motors

General Motors Europe (often abbreviated to GM Europe) was responsible for the operation of General Motors ("GM") businesses in Europe. The subsidiary was established by GM in 1986 and operated 14 production and assembly facilities in 9 countries, and employed around 54,500 people. GM's core European brands are England-based Vauxhall and Germany-based Opel, which sell much the same range of cars in different markets. It formerly owned the Swedish marque Saab until early 2010. The U.S. brands Chevrolet and Cadillac are imported into Europe in small quantities. In 2009, General Motors (GM) announced to move its European headquarters from Zurich, Switzerland to Rüsselsheim, Germany to strengthen its German subsidiary Opel.

In Europe, GM Europe operated 14 vehicle production and assembly facilities in nine countries and employed around 54,500* people. Many additional directly related jobs were provided by some 8,700 independent sales and service outlets. In 2005 GM's market share in Europe was 9.4%.

The total number of European employees were 54,500 (as of May 2009).

General Motors entered the European market only three years after the company's foundation in 1908. This involved the construction of Chevrolet cars in Denmark in 1923 and Belgium in 1925. This involvement was greatly expanded by the acquisitions of Vauxhall in 1925 and Opel in Germany in 1929. Originally both Vauxhall and Opel had operated independently of each other with totally separate product lines and were direct competitors outside of each other's home markets.

By the early 1970s, GM began to merge the product lines of the two companies, with Opel developing a series of common platforms from which a range of vehicles could be derived. These vehicles carried either Opel or Vauxhall branding depending on market – Vauxhall being used in the British market, Opel everywhere else. This in turn allowed manufacturing resources to be pooled, therefore Opel badged vehicles were produced in Vauxhall factories and vice versa. In the United Kingdom – the only market where the two brands were sold concurrently, they were marketed as "Vauxhall-Opel", following the merger of the previously separate Vauxhall and Opel dealer networks in 1980. Opel was positioned in the UK as a performance-luxury brand, with only the Manta, Senator and Monza ranges being offered in the UK. Elsewhere in Europe, Vauxhall's Bedford brand was used on car-derived vans and heavy commercial vehicles.