Opel is a car brand from Germany, but for many Chinese people, the brand Opel is both familiar and unfamiliar to many people. Since the 1990s, it has been They have been seen and sold in the domestic car market, but they have always been tepid. Only occasionally, one or two models can be slightly popular, but disappear after a year or two, such as Astra, Omega, and Vectra. , Zafira, etc., and the one most familiar to domestic car enthusiasts is the Sail, which was modified by Shanghai General Motors to have a unique style.
Picture: The founding site is located near the current Rüsselsheim train station in Germany. A statue of Adam Opel is erected at the door.
Opel’s full name is: Adam Opel AG (before 2017). The company can be traced back to January 21, 1862, when it was a factory manufacturing sewing machines. Its founder, Adam Opel, was born in a locksmith family and manufactured the first sewing machine in 1862; in 1863, Adam Opel founded the company in the cattle shed at home in Rüsselsheim; in 1868, after Adam Opel married Sophie Marie Scherer, he officially established the Opel sewing machine factory. By 1880, it had produced 20,000 units.
Picture: 1901, an advertisement for the Opel Perfecta sewing machine.
In 1886, in addition to producing sewing machines, Opel also began to produce bicycles. Because the bicycle business became increasingly prosperous, in 1888, Opel moved from the cowshed into a formal building for production. After Adam Opel died in 1895, his five sons Carl, Wilhelm, Heinrich, Fritz and Ludwig inherited the family business. At that time, the production of automobiles, which was still a new thing, became popular in Europe, so in 1898, Fritz and Heinrich, who also became interested in automobile manufacturing, decided to establish an automobile department. In 1899, Opel's first new car, the "System Lutzmann", came out, but the car business was not very successful. It ended after producing 65 cars in one year.
Picture: The five Opel brothers: Karl, Wilhelm, Heinrich, Fritz, and Ludwig.
Picture: System Lutzmann produced in 1899, using a 1.5-liter engine, 4 horsepower, and weighing only 520 kilograms. Six types of bodies were developed for this car at one time, with a total production of only 65 units. Currently, there are two versions produced in 1899, one of which is collected in the Deutsche Museum.
In 1901, Opel, still unwilling to give up on the automobile business, signed an OEM agreement with France's Darracq, using the company's chassis and engines and combining them with its own designed car bodies for sale. In 1902 At the Hamburg Motor Show in 1998, Opel showed their design and began production in 1906, but in 1907, with the end of the agreement, Opel Darracq announced the discontinuation of production. Then in 1909, Opel launched the brand-new Opel 4/8 PS model, which was well received by the market. With a price of 3950 marks, it became the representative of affordable cars in Europe at that time. In 1911, a fire broke out at the Opel factory in Rüsselsheim. The original sewing machine production line was completely destroyed, and the factory rebuilt on the same site was mainly used to produce automobiles. In 1912, the 10,000th Opel car was produced. In 1914, it became Germany's largest automobile manufacturer, with annual sales of 3,335 units.
Picture: The main reason why it is called the "Doctor's Car" (Doktorwagen) is that it is positioned for the middle-class people in society, and the price is only 3950 marks, and this car is also the first car with a The "Opel" brand model uses a 1029cc water-cooled four-cylinder engine with 8 horsepower, a total weight of 525 kilograms, and a top speed of 60 kilometers per hour.
In 1924, Opel produced the first two-seater sports car "Opel? Laubfrosch", which used an eight-cylinder engine, a dry multi-plate clutch, and four-wheel hydraulic brakes. The price was 4,500 German marks. , but as a result of mass production two years later, the price of the car was reduced to 2,900 German marks, and in the 1930s it was even reduced to 1,990 German marks.
This national car with green paint and streamlined rear design was the best-selling car series of Opel in the 1920s, with a total of 119,484 units produced.
Picture: Laubfrosch is also known as tree frog, because most of it leaves the factory in this green color. The official name is Opel?4?PS, which means that you have to pay a horsepower tax of 4 horses, and the number after 4/ It is the actual horsepower, for example, 4/12 means the actual horsepower is 12 horses.
In the early 1920s, Opel learned from Citro?n and established its own assembly line. It was also the first automobile company in Germany to adopt assembly line production. By 1928, Opel successfully became Germany's largest automobile manufacturer, with annual sales 42,771 units, with a market share of 37.5%. In the same year, the company went public. In March 1929, General Motors, impressed by Opel's modern production facilities, acquired 80% of Opel Motors' shares, and by 1931 it reached 100%. This transaction earned the Opel family US$33.3 million. In 1935, Opel became the first German car manufacturer to achieve an annual output of 100,000 vehicles, and the greatest contribution was undoubtedly the P4 model. It used a 1.1-liter four-cylinder engine with 23 horsepower and could reach a speed of 85 kilometers per hour. , the key is that it only sells for 1650 German marks.
Picture: In September 1935, P4 succeeded 1.2L and became Opel’s main sales force. When it was first launched, the price was 1850 marks. By 1937, it had dropped to 1450 marks. A single one was sold in 1936. More than 40,000 vehicles were sold, accounting for 19% of German passenger car sales. After 1937, the P4 was gradually replaced by the classic car series Kadett.
In the early days of World War II, Opel was managed by Americans and refused to produce arms for the war, and was eventually shut down by the government. By 1942, Opel began producing aircraft parts and tanks, as well as military vehicles at the Brandenburg plant, which had been producing Opel Blitz trucks since 1938. After the war, the plant was dismantled and moved to the Soviet Union. The Rüsselsheim factory was also bombed by the Allies. After reconstruction, the Rüsselsheim factory began to produce Blitz trucks again in July 1946. As a US-owned factory, the recovery speed after World War II was also the fastest. Fast.
Picture: Photo of the Brandenburg factory that was later dismantled by the Soviet Union and sent to the Soviet Union.
Starting in the 1950s, Opel began producing Olympia and Rekord models, which were second only to the Volkswagen Beetle in popularity. It also reactivated the "Reliable Opel" advertising slogan and began production in 1962. The extremely popular Kadett A-type car was launched in 1964. Kapitan, Admiral, and Diplomat A were combined into three models called KAD at the time, and this glory continued until the mid-1970s. It can be said that the entire car was The 1960s and 1970s were the heyday of Opel. It was a second-generation German automobile manufacturer and became the market leader in some categories. But in 1980, due to the impact of the second oil crisis, Opel suffered its first loss since 1950. However, under a series of cost-cutting measures, innovation capabilities declined and quality problems began to plague it. With the development of Opel, especially under the full-scale attack of competitors at the time, such as Volkswagen and Ford of Europe, Opel's brand credibility suffered a serious decline. In addition, the factional conflicts within the company caused by personnel changes continued to intensify. For example, from 1970 to In 2013, Opel CEO changed 16 CEOs, while for comparison, Volkswagen only changed 9 CEOs from 1948 to 2016, and Lufthansa, founded in 1954, only changed 7 CEOs. These series of problems have led to brisk sales, and the market share in Germany has dropped from 18.18% in 1982 to 6.93% in 2012.
Picture: The Kadett A, which was put into production in 1962, was a small car for the working class. It was priced at 5,075 marks, which is approximately equivalent to about 11,000 euros today. It used a one-liter engine with 40 horsepower. Three front speed gearbox.
Picture: Kaptain?A launched in 1964. The top model uses Chevrolet's 5.4-liter V8 engine with 190 horsepower. The car can seat six people. It is also Opel's last 6-seat car. This car In four years, more than 150,000 vehicles were sold.
Picture: Many people will question the "lightning"-shaped pattern in the middle of Opel: So far, Opel's trademark has been changed 17 times. The first logo appeared in 1862 by Adam? The name Opel was combined. It was not until 1937 that the design similar to today appeared. The object in the middle was the "Zeppelin" and was used until after World War II. It was not until 1964 that it began to become lightning, and this lightning It means the Blitz truck that was moved away by the Soviets.
In fact, after World War II, or during the period when General Motors controlled Opel, in addition to being a brand for European consumers, this car factory was also responsible for OEM, output technology or borrowing technology from other brands of General Motors. Models sold under different labels, such as Vauxhall, Daewoo, Isuzu (1971~2006), Lotus (1986~1993), Suzuki (1981~2008) before integration, including those from 2000 to 2006 Fiat and so on.
Picture: For example, this Opel Speedster launched in 2001 is called VX220 under the name of Vauxhall. It is actually manufactured by Lotus's Hethel factory in the UK, and its internal code is Type?116.
Picture: The Combo?D commercial vehicle launched in 2011 is actually the product of the SCCS platform cooperated by General Motors and FIAT Group, and then each expressed it.
Picture: In 2018, the new generation Combo has been incorporated into the PSA Group, so the frame platform has been replaced by EMP2.
In April 2013, General Motors announced an additional 4 billion euros revitalization plan and announced that it would launch 23 new models and 13 new engines. In 2015, because General Motors already held 7% of PSA's shares at that time, in exchange for some kind of exchange, General Motors withdrew the Opel brand from China, and in 2016 it withdrew the Chevrolet brand from Europe. On March 7, 2017, PSA Group officially acquired Opel and its right-hand drive brand Vauxhall for 1.32 billion euros, and then purchased General Motors' European auto finance business with BNP Paribas for 900 million euros. In the spring of 2017, Opel officially changed its name to Adam Opel GmbH. All acquisitions were completed on August 1, 2017. Since then, Opel has officially become the fourth and fifth brand under PSA. In 2018, Opel finally achieved profitability. This data, which has not appeared since 1999, has given a boost to the future development of the brand. In 2020, PSA announced its intention to reintroduce the Opel brand to the Chinese market.
Picture: Opel Adam released in September 2012, a B-class minicar with the same name as the founder. Although the first generation has been discontinued in 2019, I believe that in the near future, the Adam using the CMP platform will It will make a comeback. After all, its car name has already shouldered a historical mission.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.