Opel speeds shift to PSA vehicle platforms

FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - Opel said on Thursday that it will shift its entire model lineup onto PSA Group's architecture faster than previously planned, as the Peugeot maker pursues 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion) in savings from its acquisition of the loss-making German brand.

Opel and British sister brand Vauxhall will roll out nine new models by 2020 and complete the transition to PSA technology four years later, while offering electric or hybrid versions of every vehicle, Chief Executive Michael Lohscheller said.

PSA, which agreed to buy Opel from General Motors in March, had said at the time that the convergence of vehicle architectures would begin in 2019 and take another eight years to complete.

Opel said on Thursday that the overall synergies goal from the tie-up remained unchanged at 1.7 billion euros by 2026, of which roughly two-thirds or 1.1 billion euros would be achieved by 2021.

($1 = 0.8616 euros)

(Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)