Opel will continue its international sales push by re-entering the Japanese market with three models exported from Europe: the Corsa small hatchback, Grandland X compact SUV and Combo Life car-derived van.
The Corsa, Opel's best-selling car in 2019 with 229,911 worldwide sales, will be available in a full-electric version, and the Grandland X as a plug-in hybrid. Opel said that the Corsa could be given a different model name in Japan.
Opel said it would start sales in 2021 in Japan, where its owner, PSA Group, sold more than 15,600 cars in 2019 under the Citroen, DS and Peugeot brands.
The brand will build a dealer network in major Japanese cities, with the goal of covering 80 percent of the country by 2023.
"Our return to Japan is a very important step to significantly increase our profitable exports," Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller said in a news release.
A total of 2.8 million passenger cars were sold in 2019 in Japan, a decline of 2.5 percent from 2018.
The country also has a robust market for vehicles with engine displacement under 660cc, with more than 1.9 million sold in 2019.
The top imported brands last year were Mercedes-Benz, with more than 66,500 sales and a 19 percent import market share, followed by BMW and Volkswagen.