Volkswagen executives: Volkswagen does not intend to acquire Opel

A few days ago, Bernd Osterloh, chairman of the Works Council, announced that Volkswagen was not interested in acquiring Opel because of the incompatibility between Volkswagen's and GM’s Opel brand operations.

At the press conference held in Hamburg on Wednesday, August 17, Ostro explicitly pointed out that Volkswagen and Opel had different carmaking technologies, so they directly questioned “How could it be acquired?”. Ostro also serves as Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen.

During the global recession, GM had consulted with many parties on whether to sell Opel and its British sister brand Vauxhall until the decision was made in the second half of 2009. In June of this year, according to reports from many German media, including Der Spiegel, The World, and Auto Pictorial, GM may be considering the sale of Opel. And General Motors CEO Dan Akerson stated on July 27 that GM will not sell Opel. Two weeks later, GM stated in a statement that Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn’s remarks on Opel’s sale were subjective.

In 2010, Opel suffered a loss of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars in the European market. However, in the first half of 2011, Opel and Vauxhall’s share of the European market rose to 7.5% from 7.2% a year ago.