General Motors, which reported retail sales of 8.38 million vehicles (-6%) in 2018, is undergoing a strategic overhaul that includes shifting production to four ‘vehicle sets’, taking tough decisions in weaker markets, investing in China and NAFTA, and developing its multi-million unit Global Emerging Markets architecture.

A new Automotive World report, ‘Strategy update: General Motors’ discusses the automaker’s model plans and production outlook over the five years to 2023, and sees GM’s global light vehicle output falling by just over 10% in 2019. This decline is attributed to falling demand in most of its major markets, and had been anticipated ahead of current industrial action that has halted its production in the US.

A lengthy dispute with the UAW over the terms of a new four-year labour contract has seen strike action run into its fourth week, affecting output in Mexico and Canada, and costing the automaker so far around 120,000 vehicles in terms of lost production and reportedly over US$1bn.

The report’s author, Jonathan Storey, said, “For the time being, we have assumed that the strike will not have a major impact on GM’s North American output in 2019, expecting the dispute to be resolved reasonably quickly and for some lost output to be recovered. Nonetheless, the company’s global output is expected to decline in 2019, mainly reflecting the slowdown in China.” By the end of the forecast period, the report expects GM’s output to be in excess of 8.6 million units, up almost 4% over 2018.

Table of contents

• Executive summary
• Chapter 1: Company overview
• Chapter 2: Sales, product development and brand strategy
• Chapter 3: Production
• Appendices (excel)
  • Model plans by brand and model
  • Production by brand and model (2014-2018)
  • Production forecasts by brand and model (2019-2023)

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