Thanks to perfect teamwork: The readers of AUTO BILD and Bild am Sonntag as well as a prominent jury of journalists, racing drivers and car experts voted the Opel Corsa-e the clear winner in the “small car” category.

The Golden Steering
goes to the Opel team!

Hattrick! After the “Best Buy Car of Europe” and “Company Car of the Year” awards, the Corsa-e has won its third title, the 2020 “Golden Steering Wheel”. In order to celebrate this success, Opel invited some of the colleagues who worked on the Corsa to a video shoot at Adam Opel Haus and at the Zaragoza plant.

It was worth the extra disinfectant! Everyone wanted to hold the 2.0kg award in their hands. We put on our mask, washed our hands and kept our distance while asking the colleagues in Rüsselsheim what the success meant to them. During the shooting, the team found that the Corsa-e has won a fourth prize. Read on for more details!

“Opel is electric.
Our award-winning
Corsa is the best proof!”

Michael Lohscheller

Opel CEO

Third title: Colleagues from Rüsselsheim and Zaragoza celebrate the next success of the Corsa-e, the 2020 “Golden Steering Wheel”.

Dr. Thomas Wagner

Project Manager Change Management

The “Golden Steering Wheel” shows that even in times of huge change, you can still do a great job. I was in the core team from the very beginning, so I know that we were fully motivated to bringing a super product onto the market. Although it should be quite capable of winning this title, that was not our main objective. Above all, we wanted to continue the Corsa success story – this time with the addition of electric drive. I am thrilled when I see in the meantime that we are selling 7,000 units per month. Especially as one in three buyers in Germany chooses the electric version.

“What a success!
Let’s keep it up – we
need more!”

Marc Fetzer

Project Management

Katarina Galic

Change Management Leader

As part of the Change Management Team, it was my to coordinate all the changes that were identified and made during the development of the Corsa-e. For example, if we added a new exterior colour, that had to coordinated with the colleagues at the plant and the supplier, so that everything went as planned. In total, we must have coordinated more than 1,000 such changes.

The “Golden Steering Wheel” is a big success for us all, because the Corsa is up against strong competition and the acceptance of the customers and the media is hugely important. The title gives us the additional momentum that we all need.

“The prize is a great recognition
for our hard work. We can
all be really proud of it!”

Andrew Higgins

Marketing

Roland Matthé

Specialist for Electrification and New Battery Systems Development

I’ve been at Opel for 31 years – as Specialist for Electrification and New Battery Systems Development. In 1990, I worked on the Kadett Impuls I that now stands in the Opel Museum. In 2012, we won the “European Car Of The Year” award with the Opel Ampera. Now, with the “Golden Steering Wheel” for the Corsa-e, we have finally arrived in the big time.

I think the jury was impressed by the Corsa-e as a total package. My highlight is the three-phase onboard charger that efficiently shortens charging times – there is nothing better on the market at the moment. Apart from that, the Corsa-e is really fun to drive! At the end of 2019, we took part in the Eco Grand Prix Challenge at Oschersleben. That was where I really fell in love with the car!

“This prize is the reward for
excellent teamwork over
the last three years.”

Georg Schade

Program Team

Marcus Lott

Managing Director Engineering

As the head of development, this “Golden Steering Wheel” makes me especially proud, because we have won this highly respected award with an all-electric car. We combined existing and innovative components without the customer having to make sacrifices, be it in storage space, in seat comfort or in driving characteristics. 

In the process, we have taken a massive step forward into the future. The Autobest award already showed that at the beginning of this year, when the Corsa became the first car to be voted “Best Buy Car of Europe” in three successive generations. Now we’ve won the “Golden Steering Wheel” and the 2020 “FIA E-Rally Regularity Cup”! I can only thank the whole Corsa-e team and offer them my congratulations.

Isabell Wölfelschneider

Lighting Engineer

I am so happy about every Corsa that I see on the road – above all, when it gets dark. Why? Because I belong to the team that is responsible for the layout of the headlamp components. After bringing matrix light to the Astra and Insignia, we have now managed to introduce matrix light in this class too. That makes me especially proud. 

I heard about the win while I was working from home. It is a pity that we did not get the news as a team, because then we would have celebrated a bit. But I’m sure we will get round to that later!

“First ‘Autobest’, now the
‘Golden Steering Wheel’! That
really is an astonishing success.”

Thomas Wanke

Development Team

Sebastian Pick

Performance and Consumption

For us engineers, it is normal that it sometimes takes years until we get feedback on our work from the outside world. This time, it happened relatively quickly, even though the Corsa was the first car that we developed completely within the structure of Groupe PSA. That functioned very well, because everyone in the team took responsibility for their work.

As the specialist for performance and consumption, I was partly responsible for the range of the Corsa-e. I’ve been at Opel for five years and this was the first project that I have worked on from start to finish. Winning the “Golden Steering Wheel” straight away naturally makes me especially proud. Most recently, I have been working on the new Mokka – perhaps we will win another prize soon!?

Zaragoza is also celebrating

The colleagues at the Spanish plant are celebrating the “Golden Steering Wheel” too. After all, the Corsa-e was especially impressive in the “Quality” category.

“Great recognition of our work”: Launch Manager Ignacio Lacuna is proud of the team’s performance.

November 2020

Photos: Opel