GM to invest €4bn in Opel,Vauxhall by 2016

General Motors will invest four billion euros ($5 billion) in its German subsidiary Opel and British sister brand Vauxhall in 2013-2016, the US auto giant's chief announced Wednesday. "As a global automotive company, GM needs a strong presence in Europe, in terms of design and development as well as manufacturing and sales," GM chairman and chief executive Dan Akerson said at Opel headquarters in western Germany. He said the investment aimed to allow Opel and Vauxhall to grow in the medium term and would permit Opel to launch 23 new models and 13 new power train transmission units by 2016. Opel is "on the right track" and has GM's "full support" in its restructuring plan as well as its aim to balance its books by mid-decade, Akerson told gathered Opel chiefs, local politicians and workers. The German carmaker has been making losses for years as it has been slow to react to the crisis in demand for cars in Europe, and GM has ordered Opel's management to prescribe draconian cost-cutting. The restructuring plan was approved by three of Opel's sites in Germany recently, except at its Bochum factory. Last month Opel said it would press ahead with plans to phase out auto production at Bochum at the end of 2014, earlier than planned. A proposed agreement for keeping Bochum open until the end of 2016 -- in exchange for a wage freeze, the giving up of some fringe benefits and other cost-saving measures -- was rejected by unions and employees. However the plan was accepted at Opel's other three sites in Germany. "Those cars can be sold outside Europe if it makes sense," Akerson said adding it was "a time of challenge but also of excitement and optimism". Workers have in the past reproached the US giant for its strategy of confining sales to Europe.