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UPDATE 1-Peugeot speeds Opel technology shift to secure savings (UG, GM)
* To complete transition to PSA architecture by 2024
* Opel to introduce at least two new cars in 2019
* Synergies target unchanged at 1.7 bln euros
* Opel pledges to avoid factory closures, forced layoffs (Adds Opel CEO comments, further details)
By Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume
FRANKFURT/PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Peugeot maker PSA Group will shift the Opel/Vauxhall model lineup to its own technology faster than initially planned to secure promised savings from its acquisition of the loss-making German carmaker, the Paris-based group said on Thursday.
Rapid-fire product launches will complete the transition to PSA architectures by 2024, three years ahead of the previous timetable, Opel said as it detailed turnaround plans that leave a 1.7 billion euro ($1.97 billion) synergies goal unchanged.
The adjustment suggests PSA and Opel may have to do more, faster to achieve the savings that PSA had promised in March, when it agreed to buy Opel from General Motors in a deal valuing the business at 2.2 billion euros.
"The good news is that synergies are validated (at) a detailed level," Opel boss Michael Lohscheller said during a conference call with journalists.
Opel pledged to avoid any factory closures or forced layoffs, instead relying partly on exports to fill its underused factories. While it gave no sales goals, the strategy outlined on Thursday included plans to enter 20 new markets by 2022.
The brand's renaissance and return to profit will be based on "German engineering for all and a perfect match with (the) PSA brands' positioning", Lohscheller said, referring to the Peugeot, Citroen and DS marques.
Opel will introduce at least two new cars in 2019 including the Corsa mini, with a larger SUV to follow among a total of nine models or variants promised by the following year - a more ambitious product blitz than previously announced. All models will offer electric or plug-in hybrid versions by 2024.
PSA had said in March that the convergence of vehicle architectures would begin in 2019 and take another eight years to complete.
The unchanged 1.7 billion euro synergies goal will be achieved by 2026, PSA reiterated, with roughly two-thirds or 1.1 billion euros due by 2021.
($1 = 0.8616 euros) (Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Maria Sheahan)
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