Increase in spite of the chip crisis: only three car brands with a higher market share than Opel

The Rüsselsheim-based car manufacturer Opel is making further progress on the German market.

As reported by the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the only German subsidiary of the Stellantis Group achieved a market share of 6.6 percent in November.

According to its own statements, Opel has increased its market share for the 14th month in a row.

In November only BMW, Mercedes and VW were better.

Since the beginning of the year, Opel has been in fifth place with 6.1 percent, behind the aforementioned competitors alongside Audi.

A year ago, the southern Hesse only got five percent.

Thorsten Winter

Business editor and internet coordinator in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The production of the French sister model DS4 has been running in the main plant for a little over a week.

But contrary to what was previously announced, Opel will no longer start series production of the new version of the Astra compact car in December at its main plant in Rüsselsheim.

Big minus in sales in November

Opel also feels the disadvantages of the lack of semiconductors in production.

This can be seen in the sales figures: a good 13,000 new cars sold in November mean a decrease of almost 29 percent compared to the same month last year.

The losses at Audi, BMW, Ford, Mercedes and VW are considerably higher.

This boosts the market share of the brand with the lightning bolt.

Tesla is bucking the trend with a plus of more than 200 percent.

Since January, Opel has been the only brand, alongside Tesla and Hyundai, with significantly more sales than a year ago.

However, sales in 2020 suffered heavily due to Corona and model changes.

Smart can also show a considerable increase and is even ahead of Opel in percentage terms.

However, over the course of the year, the small car maker sold just over 21,000 units, only a seventh as many cars as the Rüsselsheim-based company sold more than 147,000.

The start of production of the Astra has been postponed by a few days to the beginning of January, as a spokesman announced.

This beacon of hope should go on sale at the beginning of next year.

It remains to be seen when exactly that will be.

Meanwhile, employees are already producing the Astra pilot series.

This cannot be taken for granted in view of the shortage of semiconductor chips.

It hinders the production of many car manufacturers.