In the early 1930s, General Motors rose to become the undisputed sales leader in the automotive industry thanks to the implementation of concepts like Alfred P. Sloan’s “ladder of success,” which established a clear pricing structure that was flexible enough to satisfy a wide variety of tastes and buying power, but without creating overlapping products and inter-brand competition. Over time, GM grew to become the biggest industrial enterprise in the world. But today, the automaker is no longer all things to all people, as acknowledged by CEO Mary Barra.
“There was a point in time where we were everywhere for everyone with everything,” Barra said in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “We had to say, ‘OK, where are we deploying capital that’s not generating appropriate returns?’ Once you start to believe in the science of global warming and look at the regulatory environment around the world, it becomes pretty clear that to win in the future, you’ve got to win” with EVs and autonomous technology, she said. “This is what we really believe is the future of transportation.”
Indeed, GM’s push into EVs and autonomous tech comes after the company has shed numerous brands over the last several decades. Back in the ‘90s, GM boasted more than 14 brands under its corporate umbrella. Today, that figure has dwindled to just eight.
| 1995 | 2011 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Chevrolet | Chevrolet | Chevrolet |
| Cadillac | Cadillac | Cadillac |
| Buick | Buick | Buick |
| GMC | GMC | GMC |
| Pontiac | Holden | Holden |
| Saturn | Opel | Wuling |
| Hummer | Vauxhall | Baojun |
| Oldsmobile | Wuling | Maven |
| Opel | Baojun | |
| Vauxhall | Jiefang | |
| Holden | ||
| Wuling | ||
| Baojun | ||
| Saab |
This dwindling movement can also be seen in the GM product line, with models like Cruze, Impala, Volt, Verano, LaCrosse and several others getting the ax over the years in North America. The movement also applies to where GM sells its products, with The General pulling out of Europe back in 2017 while selling off Opel-Vauxhall to PSA Groupe, a withdrawal from South Africa, and a significantly reduced lineup in Russia and Southeast Asia.
Today, GM is essentially cherry-picking the segments where it sees the potential for profit. By comparison, the automaker was very much “everywhere for everyone with everything” at the height of its power.
The reasoning behind it all is clear – GM is playing the long game. The moves to consolidate, downsize, and lean out are intended to deliver a brighter future, or at least what GM thinks the future will be. As such, what we’re seeing now are vehicles from which GM can earn a profit that it will, in turn, invest to get to that future goal. The maneuvering is a means to that end.
So then, what exactly does GM see in its crystal ball? As the automaker has outlined in the past, General Motors clearly believes in a future with “Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, Zero Congestion,” and that means ongoing investments into autonomous technology and EVs alike.
But in the process of working towards those goals, GM is taking away many of the products that make up the core of its business. Internal combustion cars are so far the only profitable vehicles GM currently makes, as the automaker is losing around $7,000 on every Chevrolet Bolt EV it sells. The other GM electrified effort, the Chevrolet Volt, is believed to have lost around $10,000 per vehicle.
And therein lies the conundrum: with EV adoption sitting around two percent in the United States and that figure not forecast to change significantly in the near-term future, GM’s move to shrink may look unnecessarily rash. But again, this is a longterm strategy that requires a significant amount of planning upfront to be properly executed down the road. Put another way, GM is cutting off a few toes right now in an effort to save the foot, and to eventually grow a whole new leg.
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Comments
General Motors is using Mary Hatchet Barra to singlehandedly ruin Them and once again the United States of America’s working class. The rich get richer, the working man suffers. No loyalty, no compassion, no one really cares. Corporate America is disgusting.
Odd as out of the big three GM is leading the pack on returns and profits. You are aware Ford is hanging on by a very thin thread and Fiat/Chry is pushing negative 17% returns. Even with the billions lost on this strike they are still pushing a 10% return this year.
The American people sold themselves out to corporations a long time ago. We’d rather yell and scream at each other over who’s political party is better instead of standing up for Country and citizens. Lobbing is legalized bribery and the reason our politicians not longer work for us.
Sorry. FCA at least is growing market share and hiring people.
Ohhh so selling vehicles for a loss is a good thing these days……..
I remember that game they tried back in 2005 pushing lease vehicles like a drug dealer only to bankrupt the company once those leases came back flooding the market and their values. Didn’t work then and it wont this time around.
Is GM leading the pack ?
Or just downsizing and selling the kitchen sink for the sake of profit !!
Are the others loosing money, breaking even ?
Maybe, but GM is selling the farm to show profit !!
Someone here could prove me wrong !!
In my opinion.
Yes, the Grand Cherokee is loosing so much money that FCA is adding another assembly plant in Detroit to build them.
According to interviews with GM product people they expect slow growth of EV and they expect the ICE to remain in production till at least 2050 and possibly longer.
GM May talk a lot about EV but they continue to plan build and sell ICE.
In today’s market it is difficult to be all to everyone with everything and make money or attempt to be the best at the same same time.
EV needs to grow in the lower volume p, higher price segment like Cadillac first and as cost drops as well infrastructure grows the lower priced segment will grow.
Also there is the reality that EV is not for everyone.
You have to also take into account the oil companies: I am sure they will have something to say about any major moves toward EVs.
Then there is the factor nobody is talking about: how to fund roads. Gas taxes are the major source of funding roads, and if that dissipates, do we start taxing vehicles on the number of miles driven, or do we put a tax on the electricity that is being used to charge the vehicles?
O&G companies already figured that one out. Natural gas power plants pretty much run America now as they out lobbied coal many years ago. Many thought it was political or green energy but it was just O&G running coal into the ground on price.
Genius as coal Country still blames the wrong group for their demise.
sooner or later a recession is going to hit. truck/suv sales will tank. profits will plunge. their stock price will get punished.
if profits are low, will gm still maintain their dividend? or will they cut/suspend their dividend in order to conserve cash for R&D? and all that will probably happen before these long term investments in EV/AVs start paying off.
so if you currently own gm shares, why wouldn’t you dump your shares after the stock gets a price bump once the strike gets resolved?
if you don’t own gm shares, why wouldn’t you wait until the next recession to buy at a lower price?
gm keeps talking about their vision for the future but it seems the payoff will be years away and in the meantime, a lot of bad stuff can happen.
I for one here agree with this.
But what I want GM, or Marry to answer is HOW !!
GM has proven to always be behind the curve.
So she is going to move the ocean liner that is GM to the goal, meanwhile the competition is speed boating around her to the goal.
Why didn’t she or GM see this before Tesla stole the show. Sure if Tesla goes broke and GM could slide in there it would be great. Yet the Tesla company is a tech company, the Tesla automobile is a computer on wheels. And Tesla is built that way, and serviced that way, and sold that way.
So what I’m trying to say is fine do it then. Break the union, hire some ” real tech ” and get moving !!
Because I see the GM of today, as a slow moving machine. An old vehicle with a new face.
Not a new vehicle.
Just look at the GM right now, this day!!
Lawsuits on a transmission, GM has been making transmissions for 100 years, and cant make a transmission !!
So that’s the OLD tech !!
Now the new tech, where is it ? Cadillac super cruise ? A small Chevy box vehicle Bolt ?
GM needs to get to doing !!!!
Quit telling people what you will do and do something !!
Every time lately GM has said they are doing this or that, they don’t, or cant !
Its a blame and excuse game, do something !!
Its like GM quit working on and supporting the GM profit engines ” products making it all possible “,but also cant switch to the future wanted profit engine !
Do I have the answer, nope, suggestions yes, answers nope.
My suggestion to GM. Quit being so d@m cheap, and average, and just ” good enough ” !!
Do something !!
Sure the Corvette is great, yet it still would have made more money for GM if it was kept as a Cadillac and driving the performance of GM through Cadillac as to raise the profit engine of the Cadillac badge !
But now that Mark has convinced GM to keep it a Chevy Corvette, it is just another Chevy Corvette and is not selling anything except a new Chevy Corvette.
And the ” all new ” Cadillac onslaught is just another GM offering of average GM just ” good enough ” vehicles.
I agree with most of what you say, but the UAW is not the reason for GM’s lost market share, It is not their fault their management did not give the market “gotta have” products when the other guys did.
Along your lines, the thought of GM being a “tech” company is laughable. Barra and Reuss really dropped the ball with the Voltec technology. Now we expect a producer of mediocre vehicles to suddenly leapfrog ALL the competition and set the EV world on its ears overnight? I think not.
GM has the highest costs of production, (expenses).. so yes the UAW has cost them, dearly…. they bankrupted the company and are looking at doing it again now….
GM killed itself! VW has stronger unions and can’t close factories in Europe without permission yet thrives. Toyota Japan has similar expence.
The union makes a great scapegoat for the jelious. GM keeps shrinking due to a lack of exciting product and poor management. PSA is partially owned by the French state yet has been able to turn around Opel so so much for your blame the union theory.
I think you are correct, however Loyalty to domestic companies does not exist in the United States like it does in Europe, Japan and even South Korea. GM has a very long climb to get back to stop the shrinkage. Hopefully new exciting products that are supported, superior customer service is the only way.
I also agree some Tigger,
First off, I am not a union believer in the year 2020 !! Do I think unions were necessary at one time, yes !! But now in the US with the lack of qualified workers, you as an employee can do anything, anywhere.
Is this going to hurt regionally, yes, and I dislike people and families having to move away from their homes and families to make a living !
But look at this from the outside, GM is a large corporation, the union is a large corporation. Both have the $$$$ related corruption oozing from the core. GM pays the top to much, the union pays the top to much.
The top of both have created a system to take the workers money for the top. Look with your own eyes !!
The trouble is our systems. If your at the top, its great, the worker pays !!
So look at the money flow, I like to always follow the money flow !!
GM no longer makes enough to sustain a 2020 company !! without new stock holder money, GM is stagnant !
The union is in the same place, without the customer buying a GM product, there is nothing to make and thus no money for the union through the not needed workforce.
There is simply not enough money, for either ! The customer can’t continue to pay both the union through the automobile, through the worker, or the CEO ( or the top ) and the share holder, through the automobile !
The masses in the USA no longer have the money !!
There is simply no direction of the masses any longer, and no money for change !!
And what the old people 55 and above don’t understand is the young people know they cant, eat, drink, or breath, money !!! Sure some do , I am not talking the fringes here, the masses !!
The masses of the young see ” climate change “, is it real, why yes the climate is changing, has been forever !!, will be forever. I can’t figure out why people cant see everything is always changing, the sun comes up, the sun goes down, always in a different location, always changing !! But to the young person, climate change is not as big of deal as just ” waste ” in general !
The younger mass just sees ” waste ” related to $$$$$$$$$. For no reason !!!!! Just more ” waste ” for more $$$$$, and more ” waste ” for more money, and on and on and on !!!!!!
More money is not the problem, its why and for what !!! Look at the top making all the money, both GM and the Union, what good are they doing with their money ?? The CEOs of companies in the 50s built ball parks, shopped local, passed their car down to their employees, went to church with the employees, they were all in it together, and spent the money accordingly !!
Look at all these 70 year old people passing laws and telling the masses how it is and should be, the masses are no longer old !! The boomer destruction of the US, is almost over, they see the righting on the wall and are scrambling to use every resource possible to hang on !! no matter how corrupt or wasteful !!!! The trouble is, its change, and change is always present, there is no law or money that will prevent death of humans, we will all get there, but the trouble of our time is !!
The people in the USA making laws, are old, and have a lot of money, and the masses in the USA are young and have none !!
How can 70+ year old white people, with all that corrupt money still be running the USA !!
And those same people are running the unions and the companies !!
I am 51, so old also to the masses, yet I love change for the better!!! I would rather drive an EV than ride a horse !!
The trouble is in the transportation industry today the masses want the EV and the old people with all the $$$$ making the laws are still riding their horses !!!
And just like when the US quit riding the horses and started buying that horrible automobile that will never work and cost to money, change is coming !!!
That’s where Marry is at !!!
I think she knows this, yet is trying to keep the old guy happy but trying to appease the masses!!!
And the old guys don’t want their money going to that new automobile they don’t understand, they know how to feed their horse !!
The trouble is the masses don’t want the new GM automobile, ( EV ), why ?
Because its a box on wheels.
If you told a group of young designers to make a dream automobile, this has to be the bottom of the list, if even on the list !!!
The trouble is, its like Henry Ford making an automobile with the horse industries money !!
Those people want horses, they ride horses, they sell horse feed !!
And that’s why Tesla stole the show, no horse money !!! Well that’s not true either, Elon just figured out how to sell horse feed to the horse owners and use their money for his automobile !!!
And man are the old horse owners mad, they want some of that tech money now, after they realized they could not stop that change !!
So the old horse people want some of the good old Republican regulation on the tech money !!!
Any way, this is fun, and my opinion, everybody have a good day !!
Finally, someone gets it. Mostly
Nobody wants a Cadillac Corvette. They tried that before and it was a flop.. I agree with much of what you said except for that. People who want Cadillac’s want cars like the concepts they’ve created yet never put into production. Cadillac historically has never made race cars, Chevrolet has. Race cars aren’t even in Cadillac’s DNA. The Chevrolet Corvette is pure Chevrolet….
You are wrong Matt,
And there would be no difference in a mid engine Chevy and a mid engine Cadillac !!
I also agree that the race world is a Chevrolet world, Louis Chevrolet was a racer !
But I do not agree that Cadillac owners want something different. In the early Cadillacs, yes they were large cars, from the start large luxurious vehicles, with huge engines, as to move !!!
Up until the early 60s Cadillac had huge power plants VS the average GM vehicle on the road !!
But like the song from 1958, Beep – Beep, Cadillac was no longer a fast sought after vehicle and GM made a decision back then, to make the Chevy Corvette in 1953 as GM was seeing the righting on the wall, back then, of the foreign competition !!!!
Any way we can go back and forth in history and find so, so many mistakes GM has made, and the bright spots, there are some !!! But were any of the hits, planned GM hits ?
Like the GTO, GM fought tooth and nail to not produce it, yet one man made it happen !!
So back to this mid engine Cadillac to compete with the Audi R8 !!
VW knew they needed something to get the blood to boil in the consumer to give Audi a jump start !!
Will the C8 get some blood boiling ? Sure Corvette owners blood. Some love it, some hate it, so there is blood boiling I guess !!
Will it sell more GM vehicles, YEP, I would guess it will ! At first you will see the C7 sell O so many less, as the Corvette owners wait to get the C8, then you will see a huge purchase of C8 Vetts, as its the new one !!
After that you are left with reality !!And reality is, sure some more people will give it a try over the vehicle they want, some foreign sports car buyers will give it a try, and see what all the hype is about, but there are not that many if GM could get all of them, and that’s not going to happen, for a Chevrolet !!!!
Now if it would have been kept a Cadillac, as it started, It would be a dream car, something to aspire to, want, and the Cadillac name would continue to follow !! And if GM would have RWD/AWD the Cadillac lineup, with above power for the size and weight like in the 50s, Cadillac would be on their way to huge profits again in the US market !!
But instead Mark convinced the right people to keep the best vehicle GM has ever produced a Chevrolet Corvette, got rid of the ” right guy ” at Cadillac, and we get more of the same old GM/Cadillac a Chevrolet with a different badge, and cheap at that !!!!
Well Said! Unfortunately I don’t think GM understands what it needs to be superior to other automakers. Catch up only works for so long…. The new Lincoln products and their marketing are far superior to the new Caddy’s .
That’s just Lincoln…. it’s a real shame.
Who’s going to assemble C8.R ? Less qualified monkey’s from third world country, GM/MARY dropped the ball lol. Put qualified UAW back to work give them whatever they want……. no Camaro, Vette. Pick up almost looks good ??? New plastic on old design ? And I currently own 5 GM’s
Perhaps Mexican or Chinese “Monkeys”, that would help reduce costs. GM is going to break the UAW and they know it… they have to to remain competitive in this industry.
GM is supposed to be an American company. If GM goes your route, perhaps they would be best just to sell off the company in pieces and just hold on the Cruise. When that fails which I feel it will, GM can join the great American companies like Bethlehem Steel, RCA, and Zenith among others that were destroyed by inept management.
BTW, the only monkeys I see at GM are Barra and her wrecking crew.
If GM was serious about EV they would have put more charging stations in at their plants.
I think that GM is looking for the taxpayer to fund EV charging stations nationwide.
The oil companies are energy companies and are and will be invested in electric power.
As for taxes states are already working on taxing per mile driven. With the higher mpg we are getting now they are taking a hit on taxes and were already looking at this anyways.
Both are non factors or minor issues vs EV prices or what people want.
Actually GM is looking for out side companies to invest and install the chargers. GM is an automaker not an energy company.
If GM is an automaker, and not an energy company, WHY are there so many solar panels covering the LORDSTOWN parking LOTS? The place is probably making more money selling solar power to the utility company, – while it is shut down!
Simple one it is good PR and two it helps cover some of the overhead. Three they got a tax break.
Solar to companies are often a Shell game they break even on or cover expenses a little.
C8.R, why do you even comment at all when talking Green energy or solar ?
You simply know nothing about it, other than it doesn’t use gas !!
I thought I remember one at the Ft Wayne plant but I could be wrong. It’s not really corporate GM’s decision though, the individual plants have control over their own facilities and it’s up to them to spend the money if they want to. I’m an engineer at a plant (not automotive but very similar) and we’ve had people ask and our plant manager’s answer has always been if someone actually buys an electric car I’ll put the charger in. And we still have zero electric cars in the lot.
The woman is clueless. By the time her “all electric” and “triple zero” fantasy will come true, most of us will be dead and if they keep offering mediocre product, GM may not be around. People want what they want. They do not buy to fulfil some misguided CEO’s fantasy. If they do not get what they want from GM, they will go elsewhere.
Ok…what’s your alternative plan?
Find out what today’s car buyer wants and deliver it in a way better than anyone else. It’s quite simple.
it isn’t so simple. it takes years to develop a vehicle and tons of money. what the customer wants is a moving target. look at the cruze/volt. they were developed when oil was over $100/barrel. now oil is half that and a lot less people care about fuel efficiency and sales tanked.
I may be idealistic, but at $22 million a year it is her job to know, not just throw a bunch of manure against the wall and see what sticks.
Tigger on Cancer: Just find out what causes cancer and cure it! It’s quite simple.
Waiter? I need some butter for my eyerolls.
You’re not even comparing apples to oranges. Producing vehicles is not rocket science. The first thing when the late great Sergio Marchione took over Chrysler was to budget $200 per vehicle to make the interiors better and sales skyrocketed. The new Ram 1500, for example, has an interior that puts some high end luxury marques to shame. FCA listened to what the customer wanted and delivered an even better product than the previous gen Ram. GM on the other hand thought they would be slick to save a few bucks and put an old interior in a supposedly “all new” truck. The new Ford Bronco is going to be a segment buster. Ford realizes that it is not enough to slap a rugged name like “Blazer” on a Nissan Murano lookalike and hope the customer takes the bait.
True, EV isn’t for everyone however in my family we have gas sucking powerful v8’s, trucks and yes EV!
It’s a span but you have to step back and look at the whole picture. Chevrolet is the manufacturer of the Bolt (we have 2017) it is the most range of any pure EV next to Tesla. If EV were cheaper I believe more people would own one. It costs less to feed electric juice to it all month than my Buick takes in one tank. (2.26$ per gallon for a 90 century.
Please tell me again how EV is bad???
It’s not bad, just don’t force feed me the BS … that’s my opinion
Not bad just not everyone wants a bolt size car for nearly $40k. Also if you live in areas as I do there is no place to charge other than home. Nothing else is close yet.
Much depends on what you want and where you live.
On the converse some one in the middle of NYC will not want a Dully pickup either.
While GM is working on EV they are not forcing them on anyone. They are investing much into the segments that are selling the greatest volumes of models.
We must remember we are still dealing with a company that made many mistakes over the year and needed to take a step back to better focus on the core markets.
There was one of the largest tire companies that got into many different markets as stock prices dropped they were threatened with a forced buy out by a corporate raider. They were doing things like gas pipe lines etc.
Today they are smaller and back to the core building tires. They are more profitable and have dome of the most advanced products in their core market.
Sometimes the way forward is a step back.
Mary will learn what other GM CEO’s learned the hard way: You can’t make people buy what they don’t want.
I’m not so sure of that. If she has not learned that in 35 years of being a GM lifer, she won’t get it now.
I agree Detroit Realist,
Yet look at how many Teslas were sold and are sold !!!
Where was GM on that ?
People clearly wanted them !!!!!!!
People bought and are buying them !!!!!
A Tesla is a vehicle, automobile, GM makes vehicles, automobiles !!
Now GM expects the customer to buy a box on wheels ( Bolt ) or a Tesla !!
So as long as you are saying, people don’t want a GM, EV !!
VS that people don’t want an EV at all !!!
Because Tesla has sold and are selling a lot of EVs to people !!!!
GM just can’t sell a 100 year old box on wheels to people, you are correct !!!
unlike tesla stock holders the GM stock holders would revolt if GM was loosing money on every car they sold. a lot of people are shorting tesla stock.
While most CEOs are looking for new markets to tap into, new categories to enter, and always seeking to grow their business, Mary just keeps trying to shrink GM to profitability. She’s merely the latest in a long line of so-called leaders who believe if they can just close another plant, lay-off a few thousand more people, and cancel another model or two, they can make all the problems disappear. It never dawned on them that the real answer is world-class, no excuses products like GM used to do. You don’t close plants if you build the world’s best products.
GM’s Board needs to replace Mary Barra before everyone loses their job. I was initially impressed with her handling of the ignition switch fiasco but she just hasn’t delivered on the product front. The Silverado/Sierra redesign is looking to be akin to Roger B. Smith’s GM-10 disaster which took GM’s best sellers and redesigned them into less desirable FWD products that never sold or the made the money their predecessors had.
She is a liar in the sense that GM is this tech company: It is run by bean counters to cater to the whims of Wall Street. Period. End of Story. Of course it is always nice to spew some flowery BS to excite Wall Street, and of course lay off employees- something Wall Street loves. What Machete Mary did not learn with her fancy Stanford MBA is that leaving major markets like Europe (a market that would fit her “triple Zero” and “all EV” fantasies) you loose a lot of economies of scale and hence revenue to fund the business moving forward.
And everyone should notice that the very same vehicles are now profitable for another properly managed company.
What’s new, people lost money in there stock before with gm. There vehicles lose all kinds of value after you buy them. But we as dummies keep buying Get Me vehicles. Toyota needs to merge with Gm the I would feel like I would be getting some value.
First off, there is no “climate crisis”. Mary should know better than to take advice from a 16yr old Swedish propaganda puppet!
Second, her all EVs soon strategy is foolish at best and idiotic at worst. There is no significant demand for EVs with current battery capacity/price/charging network.
The ICE is getting amazing in it’s current iterations and the use of fossil fuels is a better solution for travelling long distances.
Says the person with his head in the sand………..250K EV cars are sold worldwide each month with a 40-50% growth year over year. No competent automotive CEO is ignoring those statistics including Fiat who just killed all their ICE research and development groups. It may take 10-15 more years but soon ICE cars and trucks will be outdated technology and considering it ran for over 120 years that’s pretty impressive.
Fortunately for all of us, we’ll see within a few years who is right and who is wrong about car sales.
Hey Nate,
That’s my line !!
We will find out !
And we do !!
Just remember I’m on the Mary side and the EV side and the new truck interior side and the new Chevy truck front design side and the more average Cadillac power side and the Corvette C8 should have stayed a Cadillac as developed side( it would have sold more GM vehicles ) and the get rid of the GM 8 speed junk side, and GM talk directly to the consumer or customer side, and get rid of the union side and get rid of the dealer side !!!
Just in case I need to eat crow, as some of you already have had to do here often !!!
But we will see, I give it 5 years, we will know most of these things, Alex would like you to stick around I’m sure !!
At this rate, I’ll still be commenting on this article in 5 years.
Na Nate, this goes away pretty quick !!
The GM 8 speed junk transmission topic has been the longest lasting,
I still get comments on that topic as people have no where else to turn so they surf the interweb for help !!
Ha, Ha, its a lot of fun, in my opinion !!
Dealerships are not going anywhere! Do you honestly believe they spent untold billions the past 10 or so years remodeling and putting up brand new state of the art facilities that dealerships are just going to close up and go away because you think so? People like myself and literally everybody I have ever spoke to still like to actually go and see the vehicle in person, touch and feel it, check out seat comfort, the sound of the engine and shift feel of the transmission. And I want a place to take my car for any unexpected warranty work, proper oil changes and parts if I need them. I don’t want to wait for some stupid kid to show up at my house weeks after I submit a warranty claim to “fix” my complex EV that nobody else can work on.
So in 5 years dealerships will still be here in full force. Yes there are bad corrupt ones out there. But there are also very good ones like where I live that were a pleasure to work with and always took care of the few issues I ever had with my GM vehicles!
Joe,
Who do you speak to on a daily basis to get this conclusion.
Lets look at your comment.
First off, not one person who purchases things on Amazon talks to anybody !!
Where is Amazon now ? Asking for a friend ? ” That will never work, people want to look at the stuff they buy” , Yep, good one !!
State of the art facilities ? Maybe where you live, where I live and every dealership in my state, all they did was remodel the front offices and bathrooms, so you have a waiting room with cookies and drinks. The rear, the service shops, and the body shops, are exactly the same as when the building was constructed !!!
I love that ” I don’t want to wait for some stupid kid “. Have you went and met the people working on your vehicle in the dealerships ?
The lowest paid ” kid ” is the oil change guy, next lowest paid, tire guy, next lowest paid, detailer.
The only difference is you pay the dealership 3 times as much as the same exact ” kid ” that would come to your house !!
Warranty work, I’m not even going to go there, its just a cluster fu6k !!!! all the way around with GM and the lack of stated warranty !!! In my opinion !!
What is the average age of the person in the dealerships where you go ? 55 to 65 ?
Do you have any idea what the ” real ” data is on where the most vehicles are bought and sold ?
And that’s only because of ” again ” boomer laws, Franchise laws I mean, Ha, Ha.
When the masses get their heads together and relies the franchise laws , and this kind of law, is the exact opposite thing as C a p I t a l I s m, WOW, WHAT, The best product wins, NOPE !! The hardest working person wins, NOPE. Its a Boomer Republican regulation to benefit the dealer owner, not the best performer !!
Any way, dealerships are going away, say good by dealership !!
Will it be tomorrow, nope, but how many are there today VS say 20 years ago ?
Again this right here is why GM is behind the competition !!!!!!
GM continues to downsize. EV’s? Where is the demand?
Climate change is real. But has it reached a “crisis” point?
Yes Climate change is real. As it has been for millions of years. There is no crisis and we will all still be here 20 years from now! These same type of crackpots also predicted the end of the world after the 70’s and said we would be out of oil before the 80’s ended and actually thought the world would come to an end in the year 2000!
Your list of GM brands in 1995 is incorrect. Hummer became part of GM in 1999. Wuling became part of GM in 2001, and Baojun in 2010.
I’m of the opinion that Mary is the CEO of a major automaker and she is saying what people want to hear. That’s her job.
She’s not going to say, “Electric cars only lose money and besides, they aren’t practical for most people.”
No, she’s smart enough to tell people what they want to hear instead.
Mary Barra has got to go before she completely ruins everything that made GM great.
What made them great before she was there? You must mean the 5 different versions of the Cavalier that they were selling in the 80s, right? Each from a different division, but all obviously the same shitty car?
Oh I know, you were thinking of those sexy early 90’s Caprice, Roadmaster, and Custom Cruiser, that also were obviously the same ridiculous car.
I’m going to go way out on a limb here, and say that “everything that made GM great” was ruined a really long time ago, and trying to blame her is ridiculous.
Perhaps Mary should take a lesson from Lee Iacocca and market herself on social media/TV that she is the only female CEO of a car company and that women should buy GM products instead of Hyundai’s and Kias and Toyota’s……. An appliance is an appliance… maybe sales would go up to get more profit to develop more superior products!
“EV is the future”…GM looses $7,000 per vehicle on the ONLY EV currently in its line up.
In todays culture it’s time to rely on facts and truth. GM seems to push its PR in a direction of feelings and hyperbole. While I agree both Autonomy and EV are the future, its foolish for GM to portray that the two are the top priority in its immediate future. The allocation of new EVs to assembly plants in upcoming UAW agreements will be telling.
https://www.wired.com/2002/08/fuelcellcars/
Maybe they are just exaggerating about electric cars, but it isn’t the first time.
Lorenzo doesn’t look Chinese, so the fake news must’ve changed the storm’s name from Li. Who’s ever even heard of a category 5?
Answer: Everyone but Trump
Somebody said in the preceding comments that we will not buy what we do not want. Nothing said has been more true! And what Mary and her band of “Mary” men are not seeing or will not see is that autonomy and electrification is wanted by a very, very small few.
Furthermore, her R&D money is coming from those buyers that want ICE and to do their own driving and when these buyers have enough of the “Triple Zero” liberal pipe dream crap and tire of the fact she is building nothing that appeals to them what then? Where will the money come from? It is the majority that is paying for the few who want Mary’s crap and as stated earlier , that majority will not buy what they do not want.
I have said for quite sometime her vision for GM is flawed. Sure, it does pay to invest and research in these “futuristic” ideas but to do so at the expense of the present is disastrous! Mary does not have to tell me GM is no longer something for everyone, you can see it in the sales and quality of the product!
The board of GM must see that this leadership is not leading into new frontiers, it is leading down a path of futility.
I think her comments are intended for the stock holders. They want to hear that the company is investing in the future, so she tells them that they are all in on EVs. They want to hear that the company can weather the next recession, so she wants to make the company appear to be lean.
I would bet that the board approves.
Specially when all members if the board have been hand picked by Machete Mary…
I am wondering why this comment is receiving so many down votes. When you have a CEO that is also Chairman of the board, who the heck do you think will be selected? It has been that way forever at GM, including the time Roger Smith bought out H. Ross Perot’s seat for $750 million because he hurt Roger’s feelings.
I downvoted you for writing “Specially”.
I meat to type “especially.” Damn spell check.
Nate,you got it. GM is in business to make money not cars and they need stockholders money to stay in business.
GM engineers are clueless about their products because they dont engineer anything but just assemble. They are just schedule keepers and dumb testers. Thats why GM relies on Bosch, LG, Continental, etc for their crucial components despite spending billions of dollars with thousands of engineers.
The latest GM philosophy is to sell the least amount of car, for the most amount of money. The EV saga has been a disaster for GM. It’s to expensive, or poorly engineered. Barra is a modern day Robber Baron IMHO. She needs to go. GM needs to listen to the people, and give them what they want, not make a car, and convince consumers to buy them.
How would anyone here know if the customer wants an EV ?
Most on this site are either old boomers, and old small block performance guys. Or GM employees either at the Customer service level, or at the dealer level, so I guess the dealer employees are not GM employees directly but !!
So like I have said many times, Marry is making the correct decisions based on the masses, GM dealers haven’t a clue what the customer wants, or how to treat a customer, not all, but most !!
A GM dealer is not going to know if anyone wants an EV because first of all, the people who want EVs, don’t like dealers !!!
Tesla is another example of this, Amazon is another example of this !!
So again if GM is trying to say the dealers tell us what to build, GM will never know !!
Just like GM is saying the GM customer service is great, How would GM know, they only have the GM dealer to tell them, and the dealer tells them everything is great, keep giving us that deal!!!
Nobody knows what the future holds, except death, but we all know, what we have today will shape the future, AND PAY FOR IT !!!
This concept of the future has to pay for itself is a late 90s game !! Before that you made the right decision based on the data, and all the data, not made up data ” in house ”
And some here are correct in saying GM is just assemblers any longer, what is made by GM ? engineered by GM ? Anything ?
So we have a vehicle assembly company, trying to work out a deal with the assemblers, and no body engineers or makes anything !!!
Doesn’t seem right, and its not, and is short lived in the new world, the real world of the masses !!
my opinion!
Electric cars aren’t making any company that sells them any money. They cost a lot more than a gasoline car. Selling expensive electric cars is kind of a break even situation for Tesla, but the market for expensive cars is sort of limited anyway. The market for electric cars is going to be limited as well.
The answers aren’t simple.
also they need less workers to build a EV because there are a lot less parts so where are all those UAW going to go ?? GM is getting ready for the future of having a lot less workers.
Working int the transportation business, I have discovered that when you go GREEN, you go Broke. The desire for EV’s is actually small and held in an urban setting where a car is a luxury not a necessity. Most of my co-workers just want a fun car to drive with enough amenities to make the commute comfortable, Don’t want to be looking for a charging station all the time, or lost range in the winter. The loss of the compact/mid size sedans has me looking to the other manufacturers and my driveway is filled with GM cars, I am also a shareholder and will continue to vote against the board of directors until they realize what how they are destroying a once great brand.
To ALL HERE on EVs,
Does anyone know if it is just the manufacturing in numbers that is the reason so many of you say EV lose money ??
Sure if you don’t sell vehicles in numbers, you cant make vehicles in numbers. But isn’t that the deal with all things !!
And that’s why its hard !!!!
Like GM currently and for a long time, has to purchase already engineered parts, and partner on parts, that’s because manufacturing in numbers it how the world works !!
You will not be able to come up with ANYTHING, get it , ANYTHING, new, that people want in huge numbers from the get go. And sometimes you do. Look at Tesla, again, “O” so many people wanted one, they could not make them fast enough, but they kept going, and are still going, not like when it was new, but neither are the rest of the auto makers, and Tesla is new, not 120 years old !!!
Again, nobody wants a GM EV because they are horribly designed ” 100 year old box on wheels “. Is the GM EV better than a Tesla, probably !!!!!!!!, But look at the two side by side !!!
If GM built a good looking Chevrolet Cruze ” sized ” sedan, pickup, and SUV, again Cruze ” sized ” they would sell !!!!
Not the ugliest thing we have ever seen competition that is the Bolt !!!
Trouble is, no investment money in scale to put them together fast enough, just like the trouble Tesla had, except they had a lot of Elon money to boost it !!!
I sure hope they make it, otherwise its just like every other new vehicle story in the USA that the big three teemed up with big oil have squashed !!!!
And they are trying their hardest to squash them also !!!
I say that EVs don’t make money because the companies that sell them don’t make any money on them.
Selling more of something you don’t make any profit on doesn’t improve the situation, and reminds me of the old joke about making it up in volume.
If it don’t make dollars it don’t make cents ?
It is clear in todays world the more you buy the more you save,
You know purchasing in numbers !!!
I relies if you make one offs and sell at a loss, its a loss !!
But if you buy batteries by the millions, they will be cheaper than one !!
That is what I mean by selling more, hence making more, hence purchasing more, hence saving on parts, hence building them cheaper, hence profiting more !!
Get it ?
Maybe not possible but !!
Some you guys can whine but GM is not going to put itself into a path of BK again like in the 2Ks. If having less brands and cater to less potential buyers so be it but at least they don’t have to go in-front of an import-loving Congress to beg for money again. I miss Pontiac and IMO probably a 2 model niche Pontiac line-up would be fine but it’s not 1990, it’s foolish not to prepare for EVs and emerging markets, sorry if GM won’t just cater to the US anymore.
I just want to know why so many people on here are unable to spell Mary.
There are at least 5 market forces converging over the next 5 years that are causing a disruption in the transportation industry. Renewable power at prices hydrocarbon can’t compete, Battery tech improvements to power density and cost, EV adoption, autonomous driving, and ridehailing services. The conjunction of these will spell the end for any automaker not wholly invested in BEVs by 2025.
Meanwhile, any automaker that isn’t investing in their own Battery Gigafactory NOW, will not have the battery capacity to sell enough BEVs to remain viable by 2025. VW figured that out, and just invested $1B into NorthVolt for their own battery factory. GM is talking about maybe converting one of their shuttered plants into a battery factory as leverage in the UAW negotiations. That’s not leverage: either GM does it, or they’re dead man walking.
Also Meanwhile, the UAW negotiations are with companies that have almost no solid commitment to EVs.. they’re negotiating the arrangement of deck chairs on the Titanic.
And lastly meanwhile – Tesla will deliver 100K cars this quarter, and VW is on the path for 1M EVs produced by 2021, and startups are emerging in the BEV Truck and SUV market. GM literally has 2 years to get with the program, or be obsolete.
In 2025, BEVs will still be the minority of vehicle sales.
I’ll be optimistic and predict that it will reach maybe 10%.
Even if that’s the case, it’s flat-footed not to have a vehicle(s) and a R&D team to compete.
Oh I agree, and I’m pretty sure every company will have something available. Probably way more things available than they’ll actually be able to sell.
There will be a lot of money lost on the development of these electric vehicles if all the companies are as “all-in” as they claim.
Yes, money will be lost if you people keep tying it to a singular thing.
How much money and failures were had in the light bulb invention ?
Yet here we are still inventing new light bulbs !!
And I’m sure some here still use the energy pigs of light bulbs !!
Its like that !!
in Europe has is $7-$8 a gallon and they sell less EVs than in the USA where gas is cheap. the only way that EV are going to take over the USA the govt has to outlaw ICE engine.
The reason why GM became so big was because of one man not mentioned who was Harley Earl he introduced styling to the industry he is the reason all companies use clay modeling today he took control of how the car would look out of the hands of the engineers and put it into the hands of the stylists this is what GM needs today because you can only do so much with a jellybean they need to bring back some of the flashiness of decades gone past
She is not Chairman of the Board.
Detroitrealist,
Unless she stepped down over night,
Yes, Yes she is chairman of the board and CEO of the company, and the largest single person share holder !!!
What do you think she is buying with that 22 million a year !!
I wish she was paid more and could just own and run the whole show, and get rid of the ” good old boys ” holding her back !!
She is headed there, and when it happens, I will buy GM stock !!
You are joking right?
Mary Barra is incompetent. She talks a good game. Putting all the power into the hands of any one person in an organization is a recipe for disaster. Remember the chain is only as good as its weakest link. Her having no other background other that being under the toxic management of GM will not bode well for the company.
It would be better to get someone from outside of the organization (e.g. Ralph Giles?) who has no ties, does not owe anyone anything, and one that can clean out the incompetence that has been GM for the past 40 years.
I think that a more likely scenario will be Barra leaving the organization within a few years.
“Entitlement” is the new Dinosaur.
Lets take the Ford F series truck,
And the GM truck lines !!!
Lets say 2.5 million a year produced, just a number !!
If there was ZERO manufacturing capabilities, absolutely nothing, for any part, ok may be 5 % of the parts !!
Any idea how long it would take today, this day, right now, to start selling them ?
And how long would you loose money, before you broke even on that manufacturing investment ?
And they are the two most sold vehicles in the US, aren’t they ?
Then take away all the S o c I a l I s t gas stations, and tell the private sector to drill for oil on their own !!
That would be a great place to start this race between EV and ICE !!! Today in this world we live in today, with the knowledge we have today !!
Without all the tax payer S o c I a l I s m , and the C a p I t a l I s t regulation !!!
Just a thought !!!
https://nypost.com/2019/10/02/uaw-mulls-no-confidence-vote-in-general-motors-ceo-mary-barra/
Interesting piece. Although symbolic, I cannot remember the last time this has happened.
Barra is 110% right saying “to win in the future, you’ve got to win with EVs and autonomous technology.” and “This is what we really believe is the future of transportation.”
To get “Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, Zero Congestion” the GM synergy will be with cars that have batteries, self-driving, artificial intelligence and ridesharing, especially with electric autonomous taxis.
as it is proven , being OK is not enough so Mary and her cronies and penny pinchers must go or buy 2030 there will be only 2 divisions left
If GM is lucky…..
Barra has come a long way since his tough first year as CEO. At that time, just sitting on the hot seat, she was “questioned” by the US Congress about the recall of millions of cars due to fault in the ignition system. This incident also caused GM to be lashed out by the media and Barra, as GM’s new owner, was equally tired.