BERLIN (AP) — General Motors Co.'s Opel unit will end its small presence in the Chinese market — a decision its chief executive describes as long-overdue.

GM's struggling European subsidiary said Friday its sales in China will end next January. The company says 22 Opel dealers in China last year sold 4,365 vehicles — a tiny fraction of the 810,000 sold by GM's Buick brand.

Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann says "it would have cost hundreds of millions of euros to raise awareness of the Opel brand and to expand the distribution network."

Opel also plans to invest 245 million euros ($337 million) in its main German plant, Ruesselsheim. It plans to build an additional Opel model there as well as a future model to be sold as a Buick in the U.S.