Opel, who will supply one third of Holden’s imported car line up, has been sold to Peugeot-Citroen

THE loss of the Commodore V8 was devastating enough, now future Holdens are set to have a significant French influence.

HOLDEN is on the brink of its biggest upheaval since it announced it would stop making cars in Australia.

Opel, the German division of General Motors — which is supposed to supply more than a third of Holden’s future imported car line-up from next year — has been sold to French car maker Peugeot-Citroen.

The $3.075 billion deal was announced in Paris tonight Australian time.

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Holden is falling into French hands.

The deal almost happened nine years ago in the grip of the Global Financial Crisis, but US giant General Motors decided to keep Opel at the eleventh hour. However, since then, Opel has lost a staggering $9 billion and now GM wants out.

When talks between GM and Peugeot-Citroen surfaced last month, analysts initially said the deal was a slim chance of going ahead, as it had fallen over before. However, a joint announcement was made tonight after the board of both companies reached agreement last Friday.

Holden says there will be no impact on its showroom line-up for the next five or so years, because Peugeot-Citroen is unlikely to scrap the cars Opel is currently making.

Holden said it would rely on sourcing imported cars from General Motors in North American as well as from Opel in Europe.

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A camouflaged version of the 2018 Holden Commodore. Picture: Supplied.

A statement from Holden said: “Holden and Opel have had close ties for many years and delivered fantastic vehicles to Australian customers, including the current all-new Astra and the next generation Commodore due in 2018. The good news is these product programs are not affected at all.”

Holden plans to source one third of its line-up from Opel, including the new generation Commodore from Germany. It currently sources the Opel Astra from the UK and Poland.

Peugeot-Citroen says it plans to keep Opel as a separate brand, in a deal that would see it become the biggest automotive company in Europe after Volkswagen.

However, the next generation of Opel cars Holden sources from approximately 2025 onwards are likely to be radically different once Peugeot-Citroen starts to rationalise the model range to cut costs.

A computer generated image of the 2018 Holden Commodore.

The biggest threat to Holden is that it will lose its influence with key international decision makers, which could eventually weaken the Holden line-up. For example, Opel in Germany added a V6 to the imported 2018 Commodore purely at the request of Holden — but only after Detroit rubber-stamped millions of dollars in extra investment to make it happen.

The 2018 Commodore was only supposed to have four-cylinder engines, but Holden begged for a V6 to avoid a buyer backlash in Australia. Given Holden’s shrinking market share in a country that represents just 2 per cent of global car sales, Holden won’t have anywhere near as much leverage with Peugeot-Citroen to tailor cars to suit Australian conditions.

Why GM wants to sell Opel

— Opel has lost $9 billion since the GFC

— European car sales aren’t growing

— Small cars are less profitable than SUVs and utes

What does it mean for Holden

— In the short term, Holden’s showroom won’t look any different

— But Peugeot-Citroen will merge some Opel models with its own from the early to mid 2020s

— Holden won’t have as much leverage when it comes to negotiating changes to its European cars to suit Australian tastes

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling