Stellantis to build Opel Grandland EV in Germany, with $140 million investment

Jessica Thompson

Stellantis will invest 130 million euros ($140 million) to build the next-generation Opel Grandland compact SUV at its factory in Eisenach, Germany, with production set to begin in the second half of 2024.

The Grandland will be Opel’s first model on the coming “BEV-centric” STLA Medium platform, which will underpin models with an electric range of up to 700 km (440 miles). It will be a sibling model to the Peugeot 3008, which will be built in Sochaux, eastern France, with a launch expected by the end of 2023.

The decision to build the full-electric Grandland in Eisenach “is another important step for Opel on the way to the declared goal of being a purely electric brand in Europe 2028,” Opel CEO Florian Huettl said in a news release Wednesday.

Launched in 2017 as the Grandland X, the current Grandland was jointly developed by General Motors and PSA Group on the EMP2 platform. It is available with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain, as well as gasoline and diesel engines. Production started at the Sochaux factory but was moved to Eisenach in 2019. It was face-lifted in 2021, when the “X” designation was removed.

Opel has not revealed any details on the coming Grandland. The current model is available in front-wheel and all-wheel drive (plug-in hybrid only).

The 3008 and Grandland, which compete in the high-margin and popular compact SUV segment, are key models for their respective brands. 

President Emmanuel Macron of France himself announced that the 3008 would be allocated to Sochaux in 2020, with a 200 million investment by PSA Group (ahead of the merger with Fiat Chrysler to create Stellantis) at the factory.

The Grandland was Opel’s No. 5-selling model through the end of February, with a volume of about 4,000 units. That total was only about 20 percent of the 3008’s results, with 21,000 sales in that period, according to figures from Dataforce.

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