General Motors Europe and Renault pursue cooperation on LCVs

The cooperation between General Motors Europe (GME) and Renault is taking a further step forward with the release of new van versions for the two brands:

* Compact vans for the Opel / Vauxhall (GM) and Renault brands under the model names Vivaro and Trafic, respectively.
* Large vans for the brands under the model names Movano (Opel/Vauxhall (GM)) and Master (Renault)

The cooperation agreement enables the manufacturers to improve coverage of the European light commercial vehicles market. Over 1.2 million vans have been made since the Renault-GM cooperation on light commercial vehicles began in 1999.

Encouraged by the successful results of the cooperation so far, GM Europe and Renault are seeking further development on the fast-growing European vans market with the release of upgrades to the Vivaro-Trafic compact vans range (phase II) and the Movano-Master large vans range (phase III). Both vehicles will be introduced in September 2006.

550,000 compact vans produced since 2001
Some 550,000 compact vans have been produced since the model was first released in 2001.

The Vivaro/Trafic compact van, made at the GM Europe plant in Luton (UK) since 2001 and at the Nissan plant in Barcelona (Spain) since 2002, reached record production levels in 2005, with both plants running at maximum capacity to make 164,000 units in all.

In 2002, the Renault/GM agreement was extended to cover supply of the Master large van (made at the Renault Batilly plant in France) to General Motors Europe, for sale under the name of Movano. This range is thus sold by Renault and Opel/Vauxhall under their respective names. Since 2000, 660,000 of these large vans have been made at the Batilly plant, where production reached a record level of 102,430 units in 2005.

Cooperation began in 1996 with Renault and GM
Cooperation between General Motors Europe and Renault started in December 1996, when an agreement was reached on co-development of a compact van, with shared costs and joint production. Opel and Renault invested €700 million on design and production engineering for the new models (€400 million on development and €300 million on production processes).

As well as a 50-50 investment split, the agreement also specified joint responsibilities: Renault would handle design, development and engine supply, and GM Europe would handle manufacture at its plant in Luton, UK.

The van was released in 2001 under two model names: Trafic (for the Renault brand) and Vivaro (for the Opel/Vauxhall brand).

Because the model proved so successful, it was decided to increase production capacities under the Renault-Nissan Alliance, with manufacture at the Nissan Barcelona plant beginning in September 2002. The agreement was thus extended to all three manufacturers.
LCV Production by plant in 2005
Production sites Output
Luton (U.K) 90 414
Barcelone (Spain) 74 546
Batilly (France) 102 430

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Craig Cheetham

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General Motors Europe (GME)

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