General Motors will drop its Chevrolet brand in Europe by the end of 2015 after failing to create a significant market share, according to Reuters.
The automaker will focus on its Opel and Vauxhall ventures instead in an attempt to return to profit on the continent.
"Getting rid of Chevy seems to be a little about face for them," said Scott Schermerhorn, managing principal and chief investment officer with Granite Investment Advisors, according to Reuters.
The world's second-biggest carmaker said this week the call would result in one-time charges of up to $1 billion, according to Reuters. It should lead to marketing, production and distribution savings.
Back in 2005, GM re-launched its Chevrolet brand in Europe and the company was supposed to compete with the likes of Hyundai, and Volkswagen.
Since then, Chevy has failed to compete with other companies.
"They talked about a global brand, which is led by Chevy," Schermerhorn added. "However, given the state of the market, focusing on the brands that sell well and no longer trying to swim upstream in growing the Chevy brand over there makes sense."
NordLB analyst Frank Schwope said the decision to drop the Chevy brand is a great sign for Opel and should ease some of the pressure in a European market currently suffering from "overcapacity" according to Reuters.
"GM hopes Chevy customers will now migrate to Opel. But will they instead go off and buy other value brands like Dacia and the Koreans?" said Schwope.
GM said it will honor its contracts with its Chevy dealers in Europe, but didn't provide further details.
GM has about 1,900 dealers in Europe.
Last year, GM exported 186,000 Chevy models to Europe from Korea, according to Reuters.
"We will phase out exports to Europe by the end of 2015. We will discuss with the union how to enhance the operating efficiency of our plants," GM Korea spokesman Park Hae-ho said.
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