Earlier this year, Opel revealed the new Mokka X. Now seven months later, the first examples of the updated crossover have started rolling off the assembly line in Zaragoza, Spain.

The Mokka X isn’t another variant or trim level of the existing Mokka, but rather the name applied to the facelifted model. It’s based on the small crossover first launched in 2012 and sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Mokka and in America as the Buick Encore.

Driving the first example off the assembly line was none other than Opel’s longstanding chief executive Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, who met with plant workers, union reps and local government leaders while in Zaragoza.

GM’s European division is the largest private employer in the Aragon region of Spain where the plant is located. The Opel brand has also emerged as a leader in the Spanish market, accounting for a mammoth 8.46 percent of new car sales across the country. Opel sold 62,000 vehicles in Spain in the first half of this year, and has to date sold more than 600,000 examples of the Mokka across Europe.

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