SINGAPORE – German carmaker Opel has moved out of its showroom on the first floor of Alpine Centre in Ubi to make way for BYD. The Chinese carmaker is setting up its first showroom in the eastern part of Singapore for Denza, its luxury car brand.

       Owners of Opel cars and vans can continue to go to the existing workshop within Alpine Centre at 7 Ubi Close for maintenance and repair.

       Speaking to The Straits Times on Oct 16, Mr Keith Pang, Alpine Group’s director, said that the motor dealer will continue to represent the German automotive brand, and that there will be no change to its warranty terms or aftersales and service arrangement.

       The Opel showroom may be housed elsewhere in the building, and details are still being worked out, said Mr Pang.

       The brand currently has three electric passenger car models and three electric commercial vehicle models on sale.

       When ST visited the location in Ubi on the night of Oct 15, workers were seen renovating the showroom on the first floor. The Opel signage on the exterior wall and the vertical brand pylon outside the building had already been taken down.

       Once ready, there will be 10 cars on display – five BYDs and five Denza models – and the showroom will be operated by Harmony Auto with Alpine as its joint-venture partner, said a spokesperson for Harmony.

       Alpine bought and renovated the Ubi building in 2011 for $20 million.

       The Ubi showroom will be Denza’s second facility in Singapore, and will be opened on Oct 21. The first, operated by Vantage Automotive in Alexandra Road, was launched on Oct 10.

       Alpine Centre will also house BYD and Denza’s maintenance and workshop facility. Open to all BYD and Denza customers, the service operation will start with six work bays, which can be doubled as demand increases.

       Alpine took on the distributorship for Opel’s passenger and commercial vehicles in 2011, after securing the dealership rights in 2007 for the Chevrolet brand, which is owned by American company General Motors.

       The dealer continues to represent Opel, but Chevrolet exited Singapore in 2017 when its cars could not meet the more stringent Euro 6 emission standard that kicked in then.

       In 2022, Alpine partnered electric vehicle-sharing service, BlueSG, to supply 1,000 units of the Opel Corse-e.

       In the first nine months of 2024, Opel registered 32 passenger cars and 145 commercial vehicles.

       Records by the Land Transport Authority show that as at the end of 2023, there were 3,076 Opel cars and 746 commercial vehicles on Singapore’s roads.

       Mr Pang said Alpine is also preparing to launch Skyworth, a Chinese electric vehicle brand, by end-November or early December.

       The location of the showroom will be announced later. The first model, which is a mid-sized sport utility vehicle, has already been approved for sale here.