GM European operations Head Nick Reilly on Thursday assured that Opel’s Eisenach plant in the state will remain open. Eisenach is an highly efficient plant and ‘we want to keep it as an important resource for Opel,’ Reilly said.

Reilly had confirmed earlier that the Ruesselsheim plant as well as two other German sites in Bochum in the state of North Rhine Westphalia and in Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland Palatinate will also be kept.

He indicated that GM plans to lay off between 9,000 and 9,500 workers from its present European workforce of around 45,000.