Opel will return to Japanese market with electric push

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.

As part of its PACE turnaround plan, Opel is aiming for more than 10 percent of sales outside of Europe by 2025. It will enter -- or re-enter -- at least 20 new markets by 2022 under the plan.

Opel was largely confined to Europe under its former owner, General Motors, to avoid cannibalizing sales from the automaker's other brands. It exited the Japanese market in 2006, after annual sales there fell from a high of more than 30,000 in 1996 to less than 2,000.

Last year, all but 4 percent of Opel/Vauxhall's global sales of 973,400 were in Europe.

Opel re-entered the Russian market in 2019, with local production of the midsize Zafira Life passenger van and Vivaro Transporter commercial van at PSA's factory in Kaluga. It is also exporting the Grandland X from Europe.

Earlier this month the brand announced it would begin exporting models to Ecuador and Colombia this summer.

Other markets that Opel has entered or has revamped its distribution network since it was sold to PSA in 2017 include South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Ukraine and Israel.