Currently reading: Paris motor show 2010: Opel city car 'won't be cheap'

New city car for 2013 won't be a budget offering, according to the firm's design boss

General Motors Europe has confirmed at the Paris motor show that it will indeed introduce an all-new supermini in 2013.

According to Opel-Vauxhall design boss Mark Adams, the design of the car is well underway. It will be a "chic, youthful city car," he told us, built at Opel's Eisenach factory in Germany.

Read more on the new Opel city car

However, Opel-Vauxhall is set to surprise by pitching the car at a semi-premium price point. "Certain quarters of the media are expecting this to be a budget offering," Adams explained, "but it'll be anything but."

"We're looking to build the image of our Opel and Vauxhall brands with this car; to show that we can make stylish, desirable and emotional small cars, too."

Adams went on to suggest that the new supermini will be much closer on positioning to a Fiat 500, Citroën DS3 or Mini than a Citroen C1 or a Fiat Panda. "It will be smaller but also more desirable and more expensive than Corsa; not cheaper," he said.

Matt Saunders

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