DETROIT: General Motors Co Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra said growth in the US auto market will flatten out this year, although a strong economy and falling gasoline prices should sustain demand.
Barra, meeting with reporters yesterday after a turbulent year dominated by a scandal over safety recalls, said she is “cautiously optimistic” about 2015. She cited strength in the United States and China, and said GM will have to adjust to weather “twists and turns” in other markets, including Europe.
Barra said she still expects GM Europe to achieve break-even performance in 2016, as she told investors last fall.
Barra said the No. 1 US automaker expected industry sales in the world’s second-largest auto market to finish at 16.5 million to 17 million vehicles, indicating flat to 3 percent growth. Barra said she expects 2015 US sales will end “right in the middle of that range.”
In China, GM’s largest single market, Barra said GM’s performance was “very, very strong” in 2014. GM improved sales in China by 12 percent in 2014 compared with the prior year, outpacing 7.5 percent expansion for the Chinese auto market overall.
The stronger US dollar could be a challenge for GM “in certain circumstances,” she said. “We have to work with the tools... and levers we have.”
GM’s strategy is to build vehicles “where we sell” to minimise the impact of currency shifts, she said. However, a weaker euro and Japanese yen could give a boost to European and Japanese automakers in competition with GM in the United States, China and other markets.
In the United States, which contributes the bulk of GM’s profit, Barra said there was still room for growth because of the strong labor market, recovery in home prices and the recent drop in fuel prices.
US industry sales rose about 6 percent last year to 16.5 million vehicles. Coming out of the recession, US industry sales grew from than 10 percent a year from 2010 through 2012 and about 8 percent in 2013. Reuters
