Opel Launches Adam Production

VIENNA – Adam Opel celebrates the official production launch of the new Opel/Vauxhall Adam 3-door hatchback at its plant in Eisenach, Germany.

The Adam is manufactured alongside the Corsa small car at the site. Opel invested about €190 million ($254 million) to produce the Adam at Eisenach.

“This is a special moment for Eisenach and for the entire company,” Steve Girsky, Opel supervisory board chairman and president-GM Europe, says in a prepared statement. “The Adam is bold, innovative and versatile, and thus embodies the pioneering spirit that is moving Opel into a new era.”

Flexibility is the key prerequisite to building the Adam. The car offers more than 61,000 variants for the exterior and nearly 82,000 for the interior – ranging from a vast selection of colors and trims to special details like different headliners.

The Adam measures 145.7-in. (370-cm) long and 67.7-in. (172-cm) wide, making it the smallest car to be both developed and built in Germany, the auto maker points out.

“The Adam is a clear commitment to our plant in Eisenach and to Germany as a whole,” Thomas Sedran, deputy chairman of Opel’s management board, says in a statement.

The Adam is set to reach Opel dealerships in Germany Jan. 19.

“Already today we have more than 16,000 orders from all across Europe,” Sedran says.

Opel earlier was forecasting production of 100,000 Adams per year, according to published reports.

Sourcing of the Adam marks the first time the plant in Eisenach, launched in September 1992, will be the sole production site of a model. The factory shares output of the Corsa with the facility in Zaragoza, Spain.

The Eisenach plant employs about 1,600 workers and has a capacity for 180,000 units annually.

Despite the production start of the new Adam, the factory dropped one of three shifts at the beginning of January.