General Motors Co. plans to eliminate 8,300 jobs at its Opel/Vauxhall unit-including 6,850 manufacturing jobs-and proposes closing an assembly plant in Antwerp, Belgium, in the first half of 2010, the Associated Press reports.

The news service cites a summary of the “viability plan” GM showed the German government earlier this week. The company previously said it would shed 9,000-10,000 jobs. The final number of job reductions is expected to depend on negotiations with European labor unions.

GM’s summary says no final decision has been made about the Antwerp plant, where 2,600 workers make Astra small cars. The company has said it needs to shrink Opel/Vauxhall capacity by 20%-25%.

GM said last week that Opel would shed 5,400 jobs in Germany. If Antwerp closes, only about 300 more jobs would need to be cut outside Belgium and Germany. GM plans to present a detailed restructuring plan by mid-month.

The restructuring summary says GM is willing to contribute €600 million ($903 million) to restructure Opel. The company wants European governments to contribute €2.7 billion ($4.1 billion), which would be repaid by 2014.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle criticizes GM’s plan as incomplete. He complains that it fails to provide answers to crucial questions about Opel’s future, notably what role “green” technologies will play and how much freedom the unit will have to determine its vehicle lineup.

Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. say they will offer dealers whose franchises were terminated this year the option of appealing the decision in binding arbitration.

GM says it will be more transparent about the criteria on which dealer rejections were based and will meet with individual dealers to discuss their situations. Both companies say dealers may submit their claims for review by an independent panel whose ruling would be binding.

Chrysler shed 789 dealers during Chapter 11 this spring. GM notified 1,100 dealers in May that it would cancel their contracts by next October and said it plans to cut an additional 1,300 dealers by that date. The company reinstated about 60 dealers after a review. GM says the new process, set to begin in mid-January, probably would result in restoring additional outlets.

GM says its offer is valid only if Congress agrees to drop legislation to reverse the dealer terminations. The House of Representatives passed such a bill in July, but the Senate has not addressed the issue. GM has broken off Congressionally brokered talks with rejected dealers, but Chrysler says it has not.

The National Automobile Dealers Assn. and several ad hoc dealer groups complain that the companies’ proposals don’t go far enough.

The Crown consortium, which is led by U.S. investor Michael Dingman, made a revised bid for Ford Motor Co.’s Volvo Cars unit this week, says The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper cites unidentified sources who say the offer is fully funded and includes some Swedish investors-two changes aimed at making the deal more appealing to Ford. Crown includes former Ford director Michael Dingman, former Ford executive Shamel Rushwin, ex-Volvo CEO Roger Holtback and Beijing-based merchant bank the Balloch Group.

The Crown group is hoping to best an offer by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., which Ford chose as preferred bidder in October. The Journal says Crown’s bid is on a par with Geely’s roughly $2 billion offer. Like Geely, Crown would seek to expand Volvo’s presence in China and might work with Chinese automakers to do so.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Geely is seeking at least $1 billion in Chinese bank loans to finance a $1.8 billion bid. The news service cites unidentified sources who say the Bank of China, China Construction Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have agreed to make loans.

Ford Motor Co. plans to develop future models on its own, thus ending several decades of cooperation with affiliate Mazda Motor Corp. to engineer small vehicles, says Bloomberg News.

The news service quotes Mark Fields, Ford’s president for the Americas, who was Mazda’s CEO from 1999-2002. The Ford Fiesta subcompact car unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show this week rides on the Mazda2 platform.

When Ford reduced its stake in Mazda to 13.8% from 33.4% in November 2008, the companies said they would continue to share platforms, powertrains and manufacturing joint ventures. But analysts said the move signaled that Ford planned to develop future small cars at its European unit. CEO Alan Mulally is pursuing a “One Ford” strategy that aims to use the company’s global resources to develop new vehicles more profitably.

Shareholders of Volkswagen AG overwhelmingly approved a plan to issue as many as 135 million new non-voting preferred shares in the next five years to help finance the acquisition of Porsche AG.

The company could buy the initial 49.9% Porsche stake next week. It plans to acquire the balance in 2011.

At a special meeting yesterday, shareholders also approved changes to the company’s bylaws that give the German state of Lower Saxony the right to name two members to VW’s supervisory board, as long as it owns at least a 15% stake in the company.

Stockholders confirmed an existing bylaw that requires an 80% shareholder vote to make major decisions. Lower Saxony now holds a 20.1% blocking stake.

The European Union has been trying to overturn Germany’s so-called “VW Law,” which gives Lower Saxony veto power. Now that the provisions are part of VW’s bylaws, the rules will stand even if the VW law is abolished.

General Motors Co. and China’s SAIC Motor Corp. are expected to announce today a joint venture to produce and sell vehicles in India, according to news reports.

The 50:50 venture might absorb unspecified existing GM operations in India. The partners reportedly plan to sell 300,000 SAIC-designed minivans, mini-trucks and small cars per year in India within five years. GM expects to sell 75,000 vehicles on its own in India this year.

The two companies already run a successful car joint venture in China that has sold 1.6 million vehicles so far this year, up two-thirds from a year earlier. SAIC said yesterday its board will meet in the coming week to discuss a “major asset restructuring.” It is unclear whether those plans involve the company’s ventures with GM.

Olivier Francois, the chief of Fiat SpA’s Lancia brand, who added duties as head of Chrysler Group LLC’s namesake brand in October, has wasted no time putting his imprimatur on Chrysler advertising.

A new television ad featuring the Chrysler 300 sedan is a far cry from the usual car-on-a-twisting-road or deal-of-the-day fare. The commercial calls for the release of Burmese pro-democracy leader and political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi. Francois says the ad, a variation on a Lancia ad that ran last month, demonstrates Chrysler’s commitment to human rights.