Nick Reilly, who was named as president of GM Europe last Friday, says the plan to restructure Vauxhall and Opel is almost finished.
He has pledged to safeguard the jobs of the company’s 5,500 workers in the UK until at least 2013.
Reilly, former head of the car group’s Asia business, was last week named as president of GM Europe in a company-wide management shake-up.
Reilly said a restructuring plan for the group, which includes Vauxhall in the UK and Opel in Germany, was “95% finalised”.
About 8,300 jobs would go, but he said virtually all would come in Europe, not the UK. “There will be relatively little effect on the UK plants,” he said. “I don’t foresee any forced redundancies.”