Girsky, a G.M. Executive, Reaffirms Company's Commitment to Opel Unit Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images An Opel Astra at the carmaker's production plant in Ruesselsheim, Germany. DETROIT - General Motors wants no doubts about its plans for Opel, its long-troubled European unit: It intends to fix the division, not sell it or close it. Stephen J. Girsky, G.M."s vice chairman and interim chief executive of Opel, laid out a new product strategy to dealers at a meeting in Germany on Wednesday, outlining plans to introduce 23 new vehicles in the European market over the next four years. He also reaffirmed G.M."s determination to turn around its European business despite losing $16 billion in the region over the last dozen years. "We are making a commitment to Opel and a commitment to Europe," Mr. Girsky said in a phone interview after the meeting. But I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that we will be satisfied continuing to lose the amount of money we are losing. Like many European automakers, Opel is struggling with overcapacity in its factories at a time when car sales have tumbled to their lowest point in 15 years. European auto sales fell 9 percent in August, the 11th consecutive monthly decline in the region. G.M."s sales dropped 18 percent during the month. While G.M. has trimmed work schedules in its European plants and announced plans to shut down one German factory by 2016, industry analysts contend that broader cuts are needed to make the unit profitable. One prominent analyst, Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, recently urged G.M. to sell or close Opel before its failures dragged down the rest of G.M., the largest American automaker. Mr. Girsky declined to say whether further plant closures were being considered, but said Opel was preparing to make "significant" reductions in its salaried work force. "We think there is opportunity to take significant people out of the administrative functions," he said. And we're taking out as many chiefs as Indians. G.M. employs about 40,000 people in Europe, with half of those in Germany. About one-third of the work force is salaried personnel, and the rest are hourly employees. Unions across Europe have resisted closing auto factories at beleaguered carmakers like G.M., the Ford Motor Company, Fiat and PSA Peugeot Citroën. Mr. Girsky said G.M. was grappling with how to better use its factories in Europe, possibly by adding products like Chevrolet vehicles to its production lines."There are opportunities to increase production," he said. We are exploring a non-Opel branded product coming into traditional G.M. facilities in Europe. But one German auto analyst said that G.M. could not fix Opel without sizable reductions in plant capacity and hourly employees. "The next step must be that G.M. finally looks the union in the eye and says, "This is what's going to happen in the future," " said Ferdinand Dudenhoffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen who follows the German car industry. Mr. Girsky said talks with union leaders were continuing, and he compared the discussions to how G.M. shared its internal financial problems with the United Automobile Workers to gain concessions on health care and wages in the United States. "We are doing the same thing with the union here that we did in the U.S., which is transparency," he said. The facts are not good, but you need to know them. G.M. ousted Opel's chief this summer, and Mr. Girsky took over as the division's interim chief executive. Since then, the company has further cleaned house at Opel by replacing its chief financial officer and several other senior executives. Mr. Girsky said he was recruiting a permanent chief executive for the unit from outside the company, and hopes to hire someone by the end of this year. Until then, Mr. Girsky is pushing Opel officials to tighten controls on expenses. He has demanded reductions in costly inventories of unsold vehicles. And he has required that any purchase order of more than 20,000 euros ($26,142) be submitted to him for approval. He said the biggest challenge that Opel faced was changing an entrenched attitude about losing money on operations. "We're trying to change the culture here," he said. And it's making some people uncomfortable because you're putting restraints on an organization that didn't use to have restraints. Like Ford, its leading American rival, G.M. is also trying to bolster its product lineup in Europe. Ford recently announced several new or refreshed models for the European market, and G.M. did the same on Wednesday. In a meeting with about 250 of its largest European dealers, Mr. Girsky showed off 23 new vehicles and 13 new engine configurations that will be introduced by 2016. Among the new products shown were the Adam subcompact and the Mokka utility vehicle, which will allow Opel to compete in market niches where it does not now. Mr. Girsky declined to put a price tag on the overall product program, but he said it underscored G.M."s commitment to the region. "Europe is 25 percent of global sales," he said. That is why it is important to us. One large Opel dealer said the new products were essential to dealers struggling to stay in business. "That they are investing so much in new products, I consider a good sign," said Thomas Bieling, chairman of the Opel and Chevrolet dealers" association in Germany. It's also a positive sign that they are talking about restructuring measures that should have been done years ago. Jack Ewing contributed reporting from Frankfurt. An earlier version of this article misspelled Mr. Girsky's given name. It is Stephen, not Steven.