General Motors Corp.’s chairman, Edward Whitacre Jr., told reporters in a conference call yesterday that his board had ordered the company to speed production of some new models.
(Carlos Osorio/Associated Press/File)
Move faster, board tells GM
It wants new vehicle models as soon as possible
General Motors Corp.’s chairman, Edward Whitacre Jr., told reporters in a conference call yesterday that his board had ordered the company to speed production of some new models.
(Carlos Osorio/Associated Press/File)
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - At its first meeting, the board overseeing the new General Motors Co. ordered management to bring some new vehicles to market faster, a sign that the new 13-member board will play a far larger role than the old one.
Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr., in a conference call with reporters yesterday, would not identify which vehicles were pulled ahead, but said the board of the government-controlled company emphasized fuel efficiency as well as other areas.
“I’ll tell you there were some suggestions made,’’ said Whitacre, former chief executive of telecommunications giant AT&T. “There were some changes made. This board’s going to be very active. We’re charged with doing well for the stockholders.’’
GM, which emerged from bankruptcy protection July 10, can become profitable sooner than most people think, Whitacre said, although he wouldn’t give a time frame. The company was able to shed some debts and burdensome contracts in Bankruptcy Court, he said.
“We’ve only been at this one month,’’ he said. “It’s a complicated financial situation at this point in time. We have an aim for when we’ll cross that line.’’
The board, he said, spent much of its time going over GM’s financial statements, then moved to the Milford, Mich., proving ground northwest of Detroit to drive vehicles.
After the drives, Whitacre said, he is confident that GM can protect and grow its US market share, despite having shed four brands to focus on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac.
GM ended last month with 18.9 percent of the US market, down from 20.5 percent a year earlier. The company in the 1950s controlled more than 50 percent of the market.
In a viability plan filed with the US government in April, GM predicted its US market share would be 19.5 percent this year, 18.9 percent next year, and 18.6 percent in 2011.
Whitacre said he is confident the company can maintain those numbers and even grow, despite having sold or scrapped Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer, and Saab.
GM will stick with the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable electric car, despite reservations about its prospects of making money expressed by members of the Obama administration’s auto task force, Whitacre said.
The Volt, due in showrooms late next year, can travel 40 miles on a single charge from a home electrical outlet and has a small internal-combustion engine to generate electricity for longer trips.
He called the Volt a “leap in technology’’ that no one else has and said the country needs to move toward electric vehicles.
“I think it will be very successful,’’ he said.
Many critics say GM’s old board, once called a “pet rock’’ by former member H. Ross Perot, stuck with former chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner too long.
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