GM Bullish About Breaking Even in Europe This Year

General Motors Co. hopes to return to full-year net profitability in Europe this year for the first time since 1999.

Opel Group CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann tells Auto Bild the division lost money again in 2015. But he says the Opel/Vauxhall brands “significantly” reduced losses through cost cutting and a richer product mix. He says those factors, coupled with new models, should enable the unit to at least break even this year.

GM’s sales in Europe grew 2% to 847,400 units through the first 11 months of 2014, according to industry trade group ACEA. The gain was in spite of the loss of the Chevrolet brand, which exited the European market last year and cut GM’s volume in the region by 4 percentage points. The overall market expanded 9% over the same period.

Neumann acknowledges that Russia’s collapsing auto market, where Opel sales have plunged more than 70%, is making a turnaround more difficult.