The company's new German boss, Prof Werner Samann, also warned of cuts among Rover's British suppliers because of the high strength of the pound.
The cuts will include several thousand more job losses, through voluntary redundancy, in addition to the 2,500 job cuts already announced. It is not yet clear whether Cowley will be affected.
Prof Samann said: "I'm afraid there will probably be more job losses, possibly several thousand, although they will be voluntary redundancies."
He was speaking to reporters in Seville, southern Spain, for road tests of the firm's most important model for decades, the Rover 75 executive saloon.
Industry experts said that, effectively, the firm's parent company BMW is saying that Rover must break even within 12 months.
The professor who took over three weeks ago from Dr Walter Hasselkus, said: "I have to balance production with employment. My task is to significantly reduce our cost base and we must become faster on our feet - more flexible."
Prof Samann also suggested there might be job losses in Rover's network of suppliers because of the strong pound.
Story date: Monday 01 February
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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