New Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann and the Opel Cascada convertible.

General Motors can only hope it gets a warm reception for the new Opel Cascada convertible making its debut at the Geneva Motor Show this week, as it anchors the maker’s crucial “10-Year action plan.”

The past decade hasn’t been a very good one for Opel, which has plunged in sales and market share, helping GM run up European losses of $18 billion since plunging into the red there in 1999. Steve Girsky, the General Motors Vice Chairman who was put in charge of devising the action plan formally handed the reins over to GM Europe’s new boss, Karl-Thomas Neumann, during the Opel news conference.

“My goal is to steer Opel back to its former strength and glory,” declared Neumann, who previously served in a senior management role at GM’s arch-rival Volkswagen AG. And the key to that, he said, was the plan formally known as “Drive 2022.”

While there are a variety of cost-cutting measures in the program, the crucial piece is the launch of new products, such as the new Cascada and the recently introduced Opel Adam. In all, the maker intends to launch 23 new vehicles and 13 new powertrain packages over the next five years alone.

The Chevrolet Corvette Convertible debuting in Geneva.

The Cascada gets Opel back into the convertible market with a soft-top that can be operated at speeds of up to 32 mph and which can be raised or lowered in just 17 seconds. The new vehicle, Neumann stressed, is a true four-seater, a luxury among the majority of cramped European ragtops.

It will offer an assortment of engine choices, including a new diesel that is promised by Opel to be its “cleanest ever.”

Both Neumann and Girsky raced to exit the Opel stand as soon as the Cascada introduction was completed, declining to take any questions from a horde of journalists. But beyond the launch of new products, there are a number of elements that previously have been discussed as critical to the Drive 2022 plan.

That includes a campaign to rebuild Opel’s woeful image. To do that means not just coming out with a lot of product but doing a better job targeting them at the right consumers – and at the right market segments.

Meanwhile, there’ll be plenty of focus on the backside of the business. Earlier this month, GM announced it had reached a deal with IG Metall, the powerful German union, to freeze wages in return for job guarantees, especially at a factory in Bochum slated to close – but now expected to continue some operations.

One of the big questions is how GM will fare with its new alliance with equally troubled French maker PSA Peugeot Citroen. In a later interview in Geneva, Neumann declared, “PSA was a great opportunity for us in terms of logistics and purchasing savings and good platform sharing,” adding that, “Together we will be second-largest purchaser of auto components in Europe.”

But not everyone is so optimistic. A recent report by Morgan Stanley warned that the maker could lose as much money over the next 12 years as it did in the previous dozen.

Meanwhile, GM is making a big push into Europe with its traditionally American Chevrolet brand – which now sells more vehicles outside the home market than in.  A half hour before the Opel news conference in Geneva, Chevy staged its own event, focusing on the debut of the “C7” Corvette Convertible.

Chevy has outperformed the Continental market in recent years, and is also looking to new product to keep that momentum going. While Susan Docherty, it’s European chief, acknowledges the C7 will generate minor sales she insists it can provide much the same halo there as it has in the States.

Docherty is quick to say that Chevrolet isn’t being positioned to replace Opel – though there are more than a few industry observers who question that assertion – and she admits the market “is tough” for everyone, not just the other GM brand. But if Neumann and products like the Cascada can’t prevent the cascade of losses from continuing, Docherty and her bosses may have to rethink the way GM positions itself in Europe.