Opel leaving China, but planning a car for the US

General Motors' Opel is withdrawing from China after several years of declining sales, with the last vehicles slated to be exported from Germany in January 2015. Opel managed to sell only 4,365 cars in China in all of 2013, compared to a staggering 810,000 Buicks, GM's most popular division in China. The lackluster sales and the planned withdrawal from China highlighted the unique demands of the Chinese domestic market, where Buick now offers almost twice the number of models as in the U.S.

Opel has been unable to replicate the success of Buick and Chevrolet in China, though unlike those two brands, all Opels sold in China are exported from Germany. Opel's leadership appeared to ascribe the brand's woes in the country to marketing.

"This is a long overdue decision," Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann said in a statement. "It would have cost hundreds of millions of euros to raise awareness of the Opel brand [in China] and to expand the distribution network."

Opel has had a tiny footprint in what is now the world's largest automotive consumer market, one that perhaps was unlikely to ever match other GM brands. Nevertheless, other German automakers have had tremendous success in China and have adapted their models to the demands of Chinese consumers, with automakers like Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW offering long-wheelbase versions of their smaller sedans there.

This latest announcement comes along with plans to reinvest in Opel's home city of R

By Jay Ramey