General Motors Co will expand its operations in Russia by promoting the automaker's Opel brand. Russia is forecast to surpass Germany in new car sales in the European market within five years, despite the country's recent slowdown, which has led to a 5 percent drop in car sales this year.
"This is the right decision at the right time. Russia is an important part of the European market for Opel and the third largest market in Europe," said Karl-Thomas Neumann, President of GM Europe Opel. Neumann clarified: "Opel enjoys a high reputation in Russia and is our strong portfolio and we want to clearly increase our market share."
Five years ago, Opel was a rising brand in Russia, selling nearly 100,000 vehicles, double the Volkswagen brand. But the decrease in sales was facilitated by the Opel consortium, which includes the state-owned Sberbank of Russia and the Canadian company Magna International, now GM is going to correct the situation, including with car loans. As a reminder, in Russia car loan is provided by ROSGOSSTRAKH BANK.
GM has turned its European business towards Russia. His priority task, after $ 18 billion in losses over the past 12 years, is to conquer the Russian market. To compensate for the downturn in the euro area, GM Opel is expanding outside Europe to China, Brazil and India so as not to compete with other GM brands.
