GM chief sees "green shoots" at Opel General Motors is seeing "green shoots" in its troubled European Opel division after a restructuring and despite continuing sales declines, according to the chief executive of the world's biggest carmaker by volume. Dan Akerson said GM was also considering extending its European alliance with France's PSA Peugeot Citroën to Russia and Latin America as it sought to improve its operations" cost structure. But Mr Akerson, who was speaking ahead of next week's Detroit Auto Show, said he remained dissatisfied with the company's results in the region, where car sales have plummeted because of economic weakness. GM, which the US government rescued through a bankruptcy and restructuring process in 2009, has returned to profitability largely as a result of sharp cuts in capacity and labour costs and fast-rising demand for cars in the US. However, like other large carmakers, GM has suffered heavy losses in Europe as big falls in demand for cars have left manufacturing capacity idle. GM plans to break even in Europe by the middle of this decade. Mr Akerson said that, although the company was still seeing "weakening" in the European market, it was planning to cease production of its Zafira minivan at its factory in Bochum, Germany, which it plans to close. In December, it sold its Strasbourg transmission plant in France. "We've made progress in trying to right-size our production to this market demands," he said. The company had cut its European workforce by 2,500 and offered workers at its Ellesmere Port plant in England profit-sharing in return for concessions on work conditions similar to those introduced at many US plants, Mr Akerson said. The European division planned to introduce 23 new or updated vehicles this year to improve its competitiveness. GM was also seeking to cut costs through its alliance in Europe with Peugeot. Mr Akerson pointed to their agreement to share some logistics operations and to create three common car platforms as signs of progress. The company also saw a "potential opportunity" to co-operate with Peugeot in Russia and Latin America, Mr Akerson said. "That's still a work in progress," he said. He was far more positive, meanwhile, about the market in North America, where he said GM would this year gain market share. Both GM and Ford Motor last year lost market share to Japan's Toyota and other large Asian carmakers recovering from the 2011 tsunami. The company hoped to return this year to an investment grade credit rating, and to achieve a single-A rating by mid-decade, Mr Akerson said.