Politics and Money

[Elroy Jetson]

GM will effectively stop selling cars in Europe due to the likely imposition of trade tariffs. - http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-europe-autos-idUKKBN15V0MA

GM is selling GM Europe to Peugeot Citroën - Groupe PSA. GM Europe consists of 38,000 Opel employees and 14 production facilities in Europe and 4,500 Vauxhall employees in England. GM previously sold their struggling Saab brand in 2010 to Spyker.

Most Vauxhall and Opel cars are GM models or share much in common with GM models. Groupe PSA will be licensed to use GM technology but may increasing offer cars which differ more from GM models.


Although the increased volume created by making some parts for GM cars in Europe and some in the United States lowers costs and improves efficiency, this will not be a viable practice if GM has to start paying import tariffs on all of their assemblies moved back and forth between their European and US plants.

Apart from GM's Opel and Vauxhall brands, GM imports a very small number of US made Chevrolets and Cadillacs into Europe. These special orders will now be handled by Peugeot Citroën dealers.

Ford has a much larger share of the European market selling all their cars under the Ford name. Because Ford's American and European plants are more tightly integrated, Ford is expected to fight the imposition of import tariffs which would greatly disadvantage them to GM. Fiat-Chrysler's response is not yet known.

It's not the first time that politicians like Trump have picked winners and losers in business.