GM Plans New Models for Antwerp

Coming less than a month after losing out in a bid to build the next-generation Astra, General Motors Corp.’s Antwerp, Belgium, plant is given new life with the promise of two new models after 2010.

GM says it has reached a deal with the European Employee Forum, the auto maker’s labor panel, that calls for the production of two models of a new-generation vehicle from one of GM’s global architectures, with volume of up to 120,000 units annually. Antwerp will be the sole source of the two vehicles, the auto maker says.

“One of these products will be an Opel model, and there are good opportunities for an additional model,” EEF Chairman Klaus Franz says in a statement.

The company also says it will review potential opportunities for production of more models beyond the initial two, assuming the ongoing competitiveness of the plant.

Timing is sketchy. GM says only that the production of the new vehicles will begin after the run-out of the current Astra at the plant. That car goes out of production in 2010.

The proposal for the new work hinges on agreement on a 3-shift production schedule. GM says management and employee representatives are continuing to iron out details on potential solutions.

“The significant structural improvements we are aiming for will make it possible to allocate an appropriate production volume to the plant,” GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster says in a statement.