P. M. BRIEFING : GM to Build Cars in E. Germany

General Motors Corp. will begin making cars in East Germany later this year, company Chairman Roger B. Smith said today as he addressed shareholders at his last GM annual meeting.

If GM starts production as planned in October, the world’s largest corporation will become the first U.S. auto maker to make vehicles in the region undergoing rapid political and economic reform.

Smith, who retires July 31 after 9 1/2 years as head of GM, said the company will make Opel Vectra cars for sale in Europe under a joint venture with East Germany’s Automobilewerke Eisenach.

The company will assemble about 10,000 of the cars this year. Production of the four-door sedans, about the same size as the Chevrolet Cavalier, is expected to increase to about 150,000 annually by the mid-1990s, GM spokesman Jack Harned said.

Chrysler Corp. has planned a joint venture to make minivans in Austria. Ford Motor Co. is studying vehicle assembly plans in East Germany but has yet to announce any specific plans.

Automobilewerke’s factory in Eisenach currently makes the Wartburg automobile.