Shares of General Motors Co (NYSE: GM) inches down in pre session on Tuesday as the corporation will unify North American sales activities for commercial cars, spares and telematics services under a new brand umbrella, GM Envolve, that will compete with Ford Motor Co’s Ford Pro subsidiary and others for income from business vehicle fleets.
GM officials said the restructure is intended at making it easier for commercial fleet clients to negotiate electric and combustion vehicle purchases and sign up for services and software products that GM is creating to earn money beyond the vehicle sale.
Previously, business clients would get called on by personnel from GM’s conventional car brands, its new BrightDrop delivery van company, a new energy services operation and the OnStar telemetry unit, said Steve Hill, GM’s vice president for commercial development initiatives.
“We were basically stepping on each other,” he remarked at a media event. Hill said the restructure is not aimed at cutting employees.
GM is competing for a larger share of the commercial fleet market with Ford and Stellantis NV.
In May 2021, Ford launched its Ford Pro commercial fleet unit, with the goal of increasing annual revenue to $45 billion by 2025, thanks in part to software-enabled services. Both Ford and GM maintain they are leaders in commercial fleet sales, using conflicting definitions of the industry.
GM, VW face idled capacity risk in China without faster EV transition
Greenpeace said on Thursday that automakers such as Volkswagen and GM may have significant unused conventionally powered vehicle production capacity in China by 2030 if they do not accelerate their transition to electric vehicles (EV).
As demand for new energy vehicles (NEV) – including fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars – grows, new NEV-only producers such as BYD will take market share and leave legacy automakers sitting on wasted production space geared toward unwanted internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, the organization said.
Overcapacity has long been a problem in China’s combustion engine vehicle sector, with regulators prohibiting the development of additional capacity since 2017.
According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, China had a total annual manufacturing capacity of 40.89 million passenger vehicles of all fuel types by the end of 2021, with a utilization rate of 52.5%.
Greenpeace projected that if NEVs account for 40% of sales by 2030, a modest estimate given that NEVs accounted for 30% of sales this year, a third of ICE production capacity at ten major automakers, including Volkswagen AG, Toyota Motor Corp, and General Motors Co (GM), might go unused.
