The restructuring of the European operations of General Motors should cost about €800m ($1.05bn) this year but will be followed by an attempt to push its Opel and Vauxhall brands upmarket, the world's largest carmaker said on Tuesday.

The cost of 12,000 job losses in Europe - 10,000 of them in Germany - had previously been estimated by GM executives at up to €1bn. But Carl-Peter Forster, chief operating officer of GM Europe, said the cost would "definitely not" reach €1bn and estimated it at about €800m.