Media International

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Today is a good day for us.

We have emerged much stronger from a period of restructuring.

And we are positively excited about our future.

So, we want to share with you….what we have in our pipeline:

Today we will unveil four World Premieres,

Including a revolutionary new concept car

But before I begin, let me welcome Nick Reilly, President GM Europe, and Klaus Franz, Chairman of the European Works Council.

Looking at our business performance,

I am pleased to say that we are well on track with our Business Plan.

Our objective of breaking even before restructuring costs this year remains in place.

But it doesn’t stop there.

We want more.

Next year, we intend to achieve healthy profits.

And our new models will help us.

Already today:

• The Meriva and Astra Sports Tourer are leaders in their segments.
•  The Corsa has steadily increased its market share, and
•  The Insignia leads the hatch segment and has a strong 2nd overall position
•  Our sales results reflect that progress:

In the first eight months of this year, sales increased by some 60,000 cars or almost 8 percent compared to the same period last year.

During that time, market share rose to 6.2 percent.

Throughout Europe, Opel/Vauxhall sold a total of 819,000 vehicles through August.

All this adds up to one simple message: Opel/Vauxhall is a strong player in the market.

By the year 2014, we will have invested eleven billion Euros and launched no fewer than thirty new models.

Innovative and environmentally friendly technology will be the guiding principle with our new fleet of models.

By that I mean:

• Focusing on aerodynamic design,
•  A significant reduction in weight, using state of the art technology
•  Brand new powertrains and transmissions, and
•  Alternative propulsion technologies to enable e-mobility

With the new Ampera, Opel/Vauxhall already leads in the field of E-mobility.

We want to build upon that, expanding into other forms of alternative propulsion.

But - let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

It's a fact that we took the lead, and we were the first to make an electric vehicle that really works on the streets.

We are convinced that e-mobility will spread faster than anybody predicted.

However, the truth is - until the year 2020 - still 90 percent of car sales will be dominated by conventional engines.

So, it's imperative for us to continue investing in improvements to our petrol and diesel engines.

This is why we have earmarked a large portion of our R & D budget to improve efficiency and emissions.

We have achieved success, and - we are proud of our ecoFLEX- technology with leading CO2 emissions.

These ecoFLEX variants are very popular.

They represent half of our total sales in Europe already.

So, let’s take a look at the future…

And in fact, in many ways, the future is already here.

The Ampera, ladies and gentlemen, is a revolution.

It’s our first electric car suitable for everyday use.

It runs on our revolutionary E-REV technology which has won widespread acclaim and many awards.

Its key features are:

• 40-80 km range from the battery
•  A total range of up to 500 km, and
•  we can exclusively reveal today that emissions in range extender mode is only 27 GRAMS of CO2 and just 1.2 LITERS for 100 kilometres

Our customers have enthusiastically embraced the Ampera.

Today, we have more than 6,000 customers across Europe who have signed up for this revolutionary vehicle.

Our objective for the first full year of sales is a volume of more than 10,000 Amperas

But the Ampera, on its own, is not enough.

We need to create environmental awareness in the homes of our customers.

So as a start, we are offering every single Ampera customer, in Germany, the chance to get all their electricity from a renewable energy source.

To enable this, we have entered cooperation agreements with green electricity companies.

YES - the Ampera - is - revolutionary.

But we do not want to stop there.

We recognise that future vehicles, in a potential electric mass market, have to be:

• accessible and affordable to a broad audience
•  practical, especially for urban use and
•  Highly appealing and fun to drive to attract new customer segments

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you, our vision of individual mobility for the future.

This is the world premiere of our completely new “RAK e”

Just like the famous RAK rocket vehicle that Fritz von Opel piloted in the 1920s, this model is thought provoking.

It could very well establish an entirely new segment in the battery electric vehicle market.

Both vehicles represent the pioneering spirit that has always existed within Opel/Vauxhall.

For more details, let’s hear from our vice president of design, Mark Adams.

MARK ADAMS, Vice President GME Design

Thank you Karl. Good morning everyone.

We are really excited about the RAK e a nd as Karl just mentioned, this pioneering spirit is very well illustrated by this vehicle.

It demonstrates how we are constantly exploring and looking to push the boundaries of mobility.

Not only is the RAK e cool, fun and sexy...

It is very innovative and practical too.

We believe it opens a new chapter in E-mobility.

I have actually been affectionately referring to it as “the little space ship on wheels” and I think you can see why.

Even though it’s radically different from anything else we do, it still embodies the Opel Design philosophy – “Sculptural Artistry meets German precision”.

Because aerodynamics and light weight are so important, this concept combines a “fighter jet” like fuselage with the mechanical beauty of a motorbike.

This is then seamlessly covered with the flowing sculptural shapes that are typical of Opel’s design language.

Additionally, the bold graphic break up give this concept a young fresh feel.

Its weight is a mere 380 kg.

And we achieved this with a clever mix of proven and innovative materials that are fully recyclable.

It consists of a high strength steel space-frame structure and a smart mix of light weight materials.

A combination that makes this vehicle affordable.

All you will need to open this vehicle is a mobile phone app.

The way the package is defined, combined with the ability to electronically limit the speed to 45km/h, allows a 16 year old to drive it under European law.

Clearly, this would permit us to create a totally new youth market.

We have developed this vehicle so that it is possible for a 16 year old to drive it legally, but obviously this vehicle has a much wider appeal!

There is plenty of room for two, where the open tandem seating has been cleverly packaged.

So what about the RAK e’s driving performance?

Here are the stats:

• Its top speed is 120 km/h
• Its range is a 100 kilometres – all without a single gram of carbon emissions.
• This allows the vehicle to be driven on the autobahn if your commute requires it.

On boost, the compact 49hp electric motor packs a punch and generates 58Nm of torque.

The lithium ion battery can be fully re-charged in just three hours.

That is the equivalent of 1 Euro or as much as downloading a song from i-tunes.

Just to be clear: it costs just 1 Euro to drive a hundred kilometers – not even a scooter can keep up with that.

And with a small solar panel at home, it would even be completely free of charge

This revolutionary experimental vehicle pushes the boundaries of what is possible in urban E-Mobility and shows that Opel is constantly looking over the horizon.

Karl-Friedrich Stracke

Thank you Mark.

As you pointed out, we are looking to the future with optimism.

We want to be at the very forefront of developing practical alternative propulsion technologies.

And as you’ve just seen, we don’t just talk about the future, we actually live the future.

Our RAK e concept,
our ecoFLEX technology,
and our Ampera electric car,
are all proof of that.

But of course, we need to think about growing sales and market share right now.

So - let’s not waste any time…
the second world premiere is our new compact van, the Combo.

The Combo is user friendly.

The Combo is very spacious and

The Combo is affordable.

And for the technically minded among you, let's put this into figures:

The Combo offers up to 4,600 liters of space and its fuel economy is best in class.

Now, let's move on to our world premiere number three

The ZAFIRA TOURER.

This is the first time we are showing you the production version.

Our customers told us that they wanted even more sophistication.

We listened and came up with the new Tourer concept.

Opel/Vauxhall set the trend in the Monocab segment when we created the first Zafira over two decades ago.

We wanted to take Zafira to the next level and give our customers unmatched flexibility.

The result is not just your average family vehicle.

Thanks to our new flex-7 seating system and latest onboard technology, you have a “lounge on wheels”.

But cars also need to be what dreams are made of.

The next world premiere is certainly every car lover’s dream:

Some people call it a hot hatch.

I agree – it looks hot and it certainly feels hot when you are behind the wheel.

The Astra GTC, ladies & gentlemen, injects youth and passion into our brand.

The GTC is all about emotion.

This car is for people who simply love cars.

But - the Astra GTC - is not only appealing on the outside.

Underneath there is a piece of smart engineering: the high performance front suspension gives a crisp and precise steering feel - we call it HiPerStrut!

This exclusive feature, usually only offered in some radical sports cars, is standard in all GTCs!

All of us here at Opel/Vauxhall agree that the GTC represents the most emotional statement in our design philosophy.

It fills all of us at Opel/Vauxhall with enormous pride to show you what hard work, creative genius and constant investments can achieve.

All these efforts have paid off:

We now have a complete range of new products - all the way from the functional Combo, to the sophistication of Zafira Tourer, to the exciting Astra GTC, and the revolutionary Ampera.

Plus the futuristic RAK e is a glimpse of the next phase in E-Mobility.

We told you we would deliver. Today, we showed you.

And we promise to keep on delivering.

Thank you for your time and now my Leadership Team will join me on stage to take your questions.