German carmaker Opel on Wednesday said it planned to shift some 2,000 jobs at its historic Ruesselsheim research and development hub to French engineering group Segula Technologies, in a bid to avoid job cuts under a major turnaround plan.
Opel, which was bought by French auto giant PSA last year, said it was discussing a possible "strategic partnership" with Segula "to protect engineering jobs in Ruesselsheim and to overcome the workload decrease from third parties". Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller said in a statement that the automaker faced a "heavily decreasing" workload at its R&D centre, as engineers finish off the last contracts for former owner General Motors.
The proposed deal still needs to be approved by Opel's powerful works council.