"The quality of the talks is really very good.

And the operational and technical advantages are so great that we will surely will be able to wrap up soon the negotiations on joint vehicle development," Thomas Sedran told WirtschaftsWoche.

The plan is to come up with four new model series by 2016-2017: a successor to the Opel Zafira family van, two compact cars and a successor to the mid-sized Opel Insignia and Citroen C5.

GM and Peugeot unveiled an initial alliance agreement in February with the goal of saving at least $2 billion annually within five years, evenly split between the partners.

GM paid 320 million euros ($419 million) for a 7 percent stake in Peugeot as part of the original deal.

Center>Copyright Reuters, 2012