This is how Opel CEO Florian Huettl wants to convince electric car customers: “Electromobility is not a parallel world”

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Almost in the company – and already the boss. Until March 2022 Florian Huettl (46) joined Stellantis brand Opel as a board member. Just three months later he was promoted to CEO of the Rüsselsheim (D) automaker. After a year on the job, we met him at the annual Swiss dealer conference at Martigny VS.

Mr. Huettl, what has changed at Opel since 2017?
Florian Huett: We repositioned ourselves with the move to then Groupe PSA and then Stellantis Group. Since 2018 we are profitable again, we have expanded into new markets such as Morocco and we have switched to electromobility. Today the commercial vehicle range is fully electric and by the end of the year we will offer 15 electrified models. Until 2024 we will have a battery electric model in each series, and from 2025 each new model will be offered as a battery-only model. (Red: Fully electric or hybridized) and from 2028 we will only sell fully electric vehicles in Europe.

Which segments will Opel cover as all-electric?
Anything for which we are represented or compete with an offer. We stopped the Insignia because it was still on an older, non-electric platform. Therefore, it had no place in e-strategy and we also felt a drop in customer demand. Therefore, we are now working on an all-electric successor. And next year, production of the Grandland successor as an electric SUV will begin in Eisenach, Germany.

What about small cars? The biggest gap is in the streamers.
Not Opel. We are successful there with the electric SUV Mokka and Corsa Electric. The challenge with small electric models is to make them affordable. With Rocks Electric we launched an electric city car for young people in Switzerland. You can buy it for 9190 francs or rent it for 99 francs per month.

Opel offered two models under the Corsa, Adam and Karl.
We have no plans in this direction today. We think the Corsa is the right offer.

Even an upcoming VW ID.2 wouldn’t change that?
In the B segment, we are working on an affordable electrical range that can appeal to a wide range of customers up to 4.10 meters long. This is our priority.

Technically, you are connected to Stellantis platforms. How do you convey your Opel identity to models?
Take the Astra introduced in 2022: Development, design and production takes place in Rüsselsheim. It has clear product features that are important to our customers. The interior corresponds to our Detox philosophy with clear lines, a continuous display, several buttons and a balanced interaction of touchscreen and switches. Seats, lighting systems, direct transport – we give these requirements to our engineers because we know they are important to our customers. And in the design, you can find many details from the past of the brand without being retro.

It’s not a retro design – does this fit a new Manta?
The future Manta should not be the successor of the first two generations. We just take an inspiration from the past. What once held the brand emotionally, we take with us into the future. Inside, we go much further than today in terms of simplification and focus on the essentials with the Manta of the future. When you start questioning today, you embark on a very interesting journey.

What skills does Opel give Stellantis?
An example: We have many years of experience with hydrogen fuel cells in Germany. Rüsselsheim is currently pioneering this technology and making it available to all Group brands. Or: Driver assistance systems are tested at our test center in Dudenhofen. Each brand contributes to the global development network and is tasked with developing its own models.

There are some skid marks in the electric car market in Europe. Do you care?
I think electrification is absolutely correct – and this is the official political line of the European Union, decided by the elected representatives of the people. Countries that are remote in charging infrastructure are also rapidly moving towards electromobility – such as Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal or Switzerland, which have one of the highest rates of EVs in the new car market at around 19 percent for passenger cars. Electromobility is developing very fast.

Despite longer ranges, there are still doubts about electric vehicles. How do you want to persuade customers?
We rely on continuous improvement in battery technology, but we do so within the framework of what our customers appreciate about the brand. The Corsa has been around for nearly 40 years and has also been fully electric for four years. The electric version has everything customers appreciate about the Corsa. If you test the electric version during a test drive, you can also buy the combustion engine, but the transition to the electric version is very easy because it does not require any compromises. Electromobility is not a parallel world, it is an integral part of Opel. And anyone who buys an e-car will stick with it and never go back to internal combustion engines.

How far is Opel in terms of CO₂ neutrality and sustainability?
Stellantis wants to be completely CO₂ neutral by 2038. Then everything is systematically examined. In Rüsselsheim we are currently working on CO₂ neutral production using, for example, geothermal energy. Two years ago, we used to use 100 percent of our vehicles to deliver our vehicles to dealers, today we use trains more. First the mobility itself will be CO₂ neutral, then the whole group.

It won’t be cheap.
Investments are easier to manage if economies of scale can be exploited within the group. And it helps that Stellantis recently reported one of the highest operating returns from sales in the auto industry, at 13 percent.

How much does Opel invest?
Opel has been sustainably profitable since 2018 and makes a significant contribution to group earnings.

Your CEO, Carlos Tavares, has identified the potential for savings in sales. What does this mean for Opel and its dealer network?
Stellantis operates worldwide and controls 14 brands in its global business. The culture of cost runs deep in this organization as it is fundamental to the transformation of the auto industry. And this applies to all fields. Sales, of course, but also, for example, development and logistics.

Isn’t it often true that a small additional investment can make a car significantly better? Are there two hearts beating in your chest?
At Opel, we have to invest our development budget in the way that best benefits the customer. No heartbeats, we need the best decision to grow profitably.

Have the distribution problems in recent years eased?
For example, we had challenges with semiconductor availability and supply chains, as well as logistical capacities to deliver cars to customers. But we have developed stamina. Normally, we schedule production for several weeks so that the suppliers can synchronize. But if on Thursday you do not know whether the morning shift will have the necessary parts on Monday, then you need to reschedule in a short time. For example, with flexible working hours, so that Monday morning can be canceled and Friday afternoon can be compensated. We are now much more agile than before.

Will you be producing more regionally in the future with nearby suppliers?
Take battery manufacturing: Until now we had long shipping routes from Asia, today we are building our own gigafactories in Europe as part of the Stellantis network. One of them is being built together with partners at the traditional Opel location in Kaiserslautern. In the future, the access road to Rüsselsheim will be only 60 kilometers.

However, production in Europe is more expensive than in Southeast Asia.
Here, manufacturing is an essential part of tomorrow’s supply chains. We have to make sure this works on the cost side. Of course, lower shipping costs are an advantage.

For a long time, pure electric propulsion was considered only as an intermediate step towards hydrogen. How do you see your future?
Hydrogen is of interest for long distances, when heavy, and in commercial applications where short loading or refueling times are important. Green energy can be transported using hydrogen as a storage medium – it does not need to be used on site. Also, the required buffer battery can be much smaller with hydrogen. For this reason, the fuel cell is primarily used in commercial vehicles such as our Vivaro-e Hydrogen. It can travel 400 kilometers with 4.4 kilograms of hydrogen, and then recharges in three minutes. As for hydrogen, we focus entirely on the transport segment.

The new Euro 7 emissions standard will likely arrive in the EU in 2024. What does it mean for Opel?
We don’t think Euro 7 makes sense. The auto industry is already battling the transition to zero emissions in mobility. Investing in combustion engines at the same time to keep them running for two, three, four more years is labor intensive and nearly impossible to manage in terms of time. The necessary investments should be able to better flow into electromobility.

What if Euro 7 arrives?
We will then put each engine to the test and weigh the required investments against the benefits of conforming to the standard. Especially in the B and C segments, smaller engines that provide mobility entry will either be more expensive or will not be able to step up to the new standard.

How important is Switzerland to Opel?
Switzerland is a very important market for us, and we even produced here for a while. Many dealers have been loyal to us for generations. Of course, we are not satisfied with our current market share of 2.0 percent. But there are many positive signs – for example, we are the market leader in e-commerce tools in the current year. Electromobility can provide us with significantly more interest in Switzerland.

Source: Blick