Car maker Vauxhall’s US parent General Motors (GM) has revealed a robust second quarter performance, with losses narrowing for a second consecutive period in its European division.

The Detroit-based group announced £21.14bn of sales during the second quarter of 2010 and earnings, before interest and tax of £1.27bn.

Its main North American market delivered £1.02bn of earnings before interest and tax during the reporting period, which was up from £764m in the first quarter.

The group, which filed for bankruptcy protection and was bailed out by the US and Canadian Governments last year, incurred losses before interest and tax at its GM Europe division of £127m – £191m better than the previous quarter.

A spokeswoman said this was “predominantly driven by increased industry volume and favourable foreign exchange, mainly due to a stronger British pound.”

GM ended the second quarter with £20.7bn of cash and securities.

Vice chairman and chief financial officer Vince Liddell said: “I am pleased with our progress on achieving our business objectives.

“We have delivered strong product, maintained cost discipline, progressed strategic initiatives such as restructuring Europe . . . and delivered two consecutive quarters of profitability and positive cash flow.”

Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port site employs 2,200 staff making the Astra.

It escaped relatively unscathed in GM’s European restructuring, which will cut about 9,000 jobs at car plants across the Continent.

GM had considered selling the loss-making European division to preferred bidder Canadian car parts maker Magna and its Russian banking partner Sberbank as part of its business plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

Magna’s proposals involved up to 840 redundancies at Ellesmere Port and limited production volume.

However, last November the US car maker decided to retain its European division and institute its own recovery plan with most cuts falling in mainland Europe.

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