Opel Zaragoza plant celebrates 30 Years and 11 million cars

• Anniversary ceremony held at the plant
• Plant currently makes popular Opel Corsa and Meriva
• Celebrations are part of 150^th anniversary of Opel brand

The Opel/Vauxhall plant in Zaragoza, Spain, has just celebrated its 30^th anniversary, having produced more than eleven million cars. The plant in the region of Aragon currently manufactures the five door Corsa variant and the Meriva. In 1982, the first Corsa rolled off the assembly line. This marked the beginning of the plant’s extraordinary success story that saw the production of six different Opel vehicle labels over the years.

Spanish King inaugurates production Opel Corsa A (1982)

At a ceremony attended by senior government representatives, Managing Director Antonio Cobo, praised the dedication of the employees and their “Passion for Quality” philosophy. Several reports of independent organizations guarantee GM España´s quality products. For instance, the Opel Meriva achieved the lowest defect rate in a TÜV report 2007 and the Opel Corsa is “The Most Reliable vehicle” according to a DEKRA report 2010. 

Opel Corsa A (1982)

Around 6,000 employees work at the plant with more than 4.1 billion euro invested there in total. Since Zaragoza’s opening, 9,161,725 Corsa, 1,331,966 Meriva, 213,369 Combo, 250,728 Tigra, 153,908 Kadett and 52,731 Astra have been produced.

Opel Kadett E (1986)

Opel Astra F range (1991)

Opel Tigra (1994)

 History of Plant Zaragoza

• 1979 Ground breaking
• 1982 Start of production, 1^st Opel Corsa generation
• 1983 Implementation of the second shift
• 1986 Start of production Opel Kadett
• 1988 Implementation of the third shift (First one in the World)
• 1993 Launch of the 2 ^nd Opel Corsa generation
• 1994 Start of production Opel Tigra
• 2000 Launch of the 3 ^rd Opel Corsa generation
• 2003 First Opel Meriva produced in January
• 2006 Assignment of 2^nd Opel Meriva generation
  Launch of the 4^th Opel Corsa generation
• 2007 Start of production Opel Combo
  Corsa 8,000,000 in August and 25^th Anniversary
  Yearly Historical Production Record with 485,857 units
• 2008 World’s largest rooftop solar power station installed
• 2009 Unit  10,000,000 / Opel Corsa ecoFLEX in April
  One-millionth Meriva produced in July
  First Auto Company Certified in Quality Advanced Management
• 2010 New Opel Meriva start of production in April
• 2011 100,000 Opel Meriva B just in 10 months

The Zaragoza celebration comes in the middle of Opel’s 150^th anniversary year. In 1862, the company started out as a sewing machine factory in Rüsselsheim, Germany, then switched to bicycle production and started making cars in 1899.