Opel's marketing team is developing a plan to enter the small SUV market, with Chevrolet likely to follow shortly afterwards.

The Opel model would compete against cars such as the Fiat Sedici and Suzuki SX4.

Opel Managing Director Hans Demant said there is a market for such a car but would not comment on whether it will definitely be built.

"There is a need for small SUVs and our marketing team has been working on this. First we need to develop a concept," Demant told Automotive News Europe.

Rudi Kennes, a senior official at Belgium's ABVV union, said that the new SUV model would be built in GM's Antwerp, Belgium, factory. He said the US automaker has already signed an agreement that a small SUV for two GM brands will go into production in the second half of 2010.

"One will be an Opel and the other a Chevrolet," he said. Kennes added that the plant would produce 120,000 units of the new model per year.

Nigel Griffiths, a senior analyst at Global Insight in London, said he expects Chevrolet's small SUV to be very close to the Trax concept that debuted at the 2006 New York auto show.

The small SUV would be positioned below the Opel/Vauxhall Antara and Chevrolet Captiva medium SUVs. It could be based on GM's new small-car architecture, which is being developed by GM Daewoo Auto and Technology in Korea.

Growing segment

GM's Antwerp plant will have extra capacity once GM phases out production of the current Opel/Vauxhall Astra there by 2010.

Alain Visser, Opel's executive director for European marketing, said that GM was looking to fill capacity at its Antwerp plant and that a small SUV "was one of the options."

The small SUV segment is growing sharply in Europe. Last year, sales grew 62.6 percent to 94,153.