GM Europe will add around 500 jobs at its Ruesselsheim plant having decided to make the plant more flexible and build models on the new global midsize architecture as well as the global compact platform.
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The automaker will build the new Saab 9-3, on the global compact architecture, at the plant, alongside the new Vauxhall/Opel Insignia and Saab 9-5. The Insignia goes into production this year, with the Saab 9-5 due at the end of 2009. The 9-3 arrives in 2012.
The plant will be set up to produce around 270,000 cars a year in three shifts.
GM Europe management decided that production of a second architecture was necessary to ensure full use of a three-shift operation.
Ruesselsheim had been expecting to produce the 9-3 but a recent decision to move it onto the global compact architecture, the same as the Astra, meant that other plants thought they might get the new model instead. Up to 70,000 units will be built each year.
There is reportedly no question of the Astra being built at Ruesselsheim.
