Vehicle giant GM struggles to keep up with market collapse
Detroit — General Motors’s (GM’s) monumental announcement on Monday that it will close three car assembly plants in North America and slash its workforce will only partially close the gap between capacity and demand for the vehicle maker’s sedans, according to a Reuters analysis of industry production and capacity data. Sales of traditional passenger cars in North America have been declining for the past six years and are still withering. After GM ends production in 2019 at factories in Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, it will still have four US car plants, all operating at less than 50% of rated capacity, according to figures supplied by LMC Automotive. In comparison, Detroit-based rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler will have one car plant each in North America after 2019. The Detroit Three are facing rapidly dwindling demand for traditional passenger cars from US consumers, many of whom have shifted to crossovers and trucks. Passenger cars accounted for 48% of retail light-vehicle sales in ...
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