PARIS -- PSA Group has reshuffled its technical leadership, naming Christian Mueller, a General Motors veteran who currently heads Opel/Vauxhall R&D, as head of powertrain and chassis engineering
Mueller succeeds Alain Raposo, who is leaving PSA.
Replacing Mueller at Opel/Vauxhall will be Marcus Lott, head of body-in-white, equipment and materials engineering at Opel, PSA said in a news release.
Mueller will report to Nicolas Morel, executive vice president of R&D at PSA, who described him as "a leading and recognized powertrain expert in the automotive industry."
Mueller, an engineering graduate of Darmstadt University in Germany, held the position of head of global propulsion systems for GM Europe prior to PSA's acquisition of Opel/Vauxhall in 2017.
He started in his current position at Opel on Aug. 1, 2017, one day after the PSA deal closed, with the assignment of integrating engineering and powertrain in one department.
He also worked on finding new projects for Opel's engineering center at Ruesselsheim, Germany, including developing PSA's future four-cylinder gasoline engines.
Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller said in a statement, "German engineering is at the heart of Opel. As head of Opel R&D, Christian played a key role in making this visible and tangible for our customers in all of our models, like the current Corsa and future Mokka, which are also available in electric versions."
PSA said that Raposo, who joined the automaker from Renault in 2017 as head of electric vehicle programs and took up his current post in May 2018, would be leaving the company to pursue personal projects.
Raposo started at Renault in 1987 and held various engineering positions there and at alliance partner Nissan, rising to become global head of alliance powertrains and electric vehicle engineering from April 2014 to June 2017.
Lott, who holds a degree from RWTH Aachen in Germany, has worked at Opel and GM since 1995, leading the development of vehicles in North America, South America, Asia and Europe as a chief engineer. Before taking his current job in 2017 he was vice president, programs and strategy at Opel/Vauxhall.
