Early interest in the Adam has been encouraging. Opel has received more than 20,000 customer orders since October for the new Adam minicar, a crucial product for the money-losing brand. General Motors' German subsidiary said that many of the orders came in prior to the model's mid-January launch.

Aimed squarely at fans of the Fiat 500 and Mini Cooper, the small hatchback is being aimed at Internet-savvy car buyers looking for greater individualization.

GM has not published full-year results yet but it has said its operating loss in Europe should improve slightly in 2013.