From 2014 Opel will make the Zafira in the Rüsselsheim plant
- GM has chosen the Rüsselsheim plant to produce the Zafira minivan after the closure of the Bochum plant in 2014.
- It must be remembered that the Rüsselsheim plant is the main Opel plant which currently produces the Opel Insignia and some Astras. The production of the Astra in Rüsselsheim is still scheduled to be stopped in 2014 or 2015 and transferred to Gliwice in Poland. This makes sense: premium models (Insignia, Zafira) are and will be produced in Germany, where costs are higher than those of Poland.
- Advanced scenarios two months ago on the Inovev website, concerning the transfer of the Zafira production to Gliwice (GM) or Rennes (PSA plant in France) have not been confirmed by Opel’s management.
- Transfer to Gliwice made sense as between 2005 and 2011 the Zafira was previously made on this site, but the management of Opel thought the Astra and the Cascada would be enough to run the plant in Gliwice (200,000 units per year).
- Transfer to Rennes also made sense as the next Citroën C5 was initially meant to migrate to Rüsselsheim, but since this option was abandoned a month and half ago (after the new platform separation policy between upscale PSA models and those of GM Europe), there was no reason for the Zafira to migrate to Rennes.
Data source: File #10 - Start of Production (SOP) of new and modified vehicles in Europe
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