General Motors Corp. said today that it plans to idle two assembly plants, including a plant in Detroit, for one week due slow car sales.

GM said it will shut down its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant for one week beginning Nov. 24 and plans to shut down its plant in Bowling Green, Ky., beginning Dec. 1, said GM spokesman Chris Lee.

GM employs 1,700 at the Hamtramck plant that makes the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS sedans. GM employs 800 at the Bowling Green plant where it makes Chevrolet Corvette and the Cadillac XLR sports coupes.

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General Motors Corp. will begin selling its new Chevrolet Cruze compact car in South Korea next month, the U.S. automaker’s local unit said Monday.

The Cruze is the first model released as the ailing American auto giant shifts to producing fuel-efficient cars, as it struggles to compete with Asian rivals amid massive financial losses and shrinking market share.

The Cruze, produced by GM’s South Korean affiliate, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., will be available for sales here from November under the badge of Lacetti Premiere, GM Daewoo said in a statement.

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General Motors and Chrysler announced further economies yesterday as the biggest and smallest of Detroit’s three carmakers race to conserve liquidity amid a deepening slump in vehicle sales.

GM has been in talks on a takeover of its smaller rival, controlled by Cerberus Capital Management, the New York buy-out firm. But yesterday’s announcements were made separately.

Rick Wagoner, GM’s chief executive, and Fritz Henderson, president, said job cuts among salaried staff and contract workers were in the offing this year and in early 2009. “The global economic outlook remains very concerning,” they said in a letter. “As a result, actions are being taken throughout GM’s global operations to address our increasing need to conserve cash.”

GM aims to trim 15 per cent of its US salaried staff costs, or about 4,800 of its 32,000 white-collar workers. But the executives said: “We need to reduce our salaried and contract workforce by even more than we anticipated”. GM was also suspending matching contributions to salaried employees’ retirement savings plans.

GM has bled about $1bn in cash each month this year, and analysts expect the haemorrhaging to accelerate well into 2009, if not longer.

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General Motors Corp. is likely to announce additional cost cuts as part of its third-quarter earnings announcement, in an effort to generate enough cash to sustain itself until the economy improves, people familiar with the automaker’s plans said today.

Every facet of the organization is under scrutiny for possible cuts, they said. One person said the cuts are expected to include such moves as the cancellation or delay of some vehicle programs, which could result in reductions in engineering and design staff.

The plans for further cuts come as GM is negotiating a potential merger with Chrysler LLC and is adding to the assets it has up for sale. GM announced plans today to sell its longtime replacement-parts division, ACDelco.

The moves are necessary because GM’s initial plans to generate $15 billion through 2009 won’t be enough, given the effect that a worsening economy and tight credit market have had on vehicle sales, the people familiar with the plans said.

GM has not set a date to announce its third-quarter financial results, but estimates have projected a loss of $2 billion.

Company spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem declined to comment on new cost-cutting plans.

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Toyota Motor Corp.’s China car sales beat General Motors Corp.’s in the first nine months of the year, as the Japanese company threatens to end GM’s 77-year reign as the world’s largest automaker.

Toyota’s two Chinese ventures boosted nine-month sales 30 percent to 407,427 cars and sport-utility vehicles. GM’s car sales were little changed at 373,945, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data issued by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The Japanese automaker boosted sales of Corollas and other models at about triple the pace of the overall market after opening a new plant last year. Detroit-based GM is counting on overseas growth as the credit crunch has driven U.S. sales down 18 percent this year and the company’s shares to a 58-year low.

“China is very important to GM and losing share there makes life even more difficult,” said Ricon Xia, an analyst at Daiwa Associate Holdings Ltd. in Shanghai. “Japanese automakers know how to make cars for Chinese consumers and they have been expanding in China at a very steady pace.”

GM sold 1.03 million vehicles in China last year, about 11 percent of its global total. The company is the biggest overseas automaker in the country in terms of overall sales, as it also makes vans. Total nine-month sales at its Chinese ventures rose 9.3 percent to 785,144, according to Bloomberg calculations.

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Unthinkability is upon us. Or is it unthinkableness?

No matter, as “W” might say, it’s reallymarkable, the stuff that’s goin’ on today, especially in Detroit.

And hold onto your helmets, dear readers, stranger days are coming.

Chrysler LLC will almost certainly disappear in the next few months, assimilated into General Motors Corp. or Renault-Nissan in a deal blessed, if not partially funded, by the U.S. government. Unless, that is, Chrysler is first peddled to an outfit from China, India, Italy or Russia.

GM, the world’s largest company for most of the last century, could implode at any moment from the mounting pressures of being all things to all people, providing cars for every purse and purpose, plus generous pensions and pay and health benefits to support generations of workers and spouses and kids and retirees.

Rick Wagoner, GM’s resilient CEO, who has survived previous predictions of his imminent demise, may bow out soon, no matter what becomes of the GM-Chrysler talks. His smarts and likability have kept him on top so far, but GM has underperformed for so long that somebody must ultimately pay the price — and the loyal Wagoner has been reluctant to cut loose other top-level executives for not producing results.

Do I know this stuff is going to happen?

No, of course not, any more than I know exactly what buildings will be demolished the next time a tornado rips through town. But I’m pretty sure a cyclone is whipping through Detroit’s automobile industry now and that we’ll hardly recognize the landscape when it’s gone.

Here’s one small example of the unthinkable happening in these stressful times.

Don Leclair, Ford Motor Co.’s chief financial officer and widely respected whiz at crunching numbers, suddenly “retired” this month. The Oct. 10 announcement received only modest attention because reports of GM-Chrysler merger talks surfaced the same day.

Leclair retired at age 56; his replacement Lewis Booth is 59.

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In the doomsday scenario raising anxiety around the Motor City, General Motors Corp. makes a deal for Chrysler LLC, keeps Jeep and the minivans, and vaporizes the rest of the company.

Tens of thousands of Chrysler’s 66,409 employees lose their jobs as cash-desperate GM swiftly cuts redundant operations and sheds unprofitable models. Factories and dealerships are closed, and the lights go out at Chrysler’s gleaming corporate headquarters campus in the northern suburb of Auburn Hills.

It’s not something Andre Thibodeaux wants to think about. The general manager of Lelli’s, an upscale steakhouse and Italian restaurant near Chrysler’s 15-story tower, gets about half his lunch business from the automaker and related businesses.

The eatery, with roots in downtown Detroit and family owned for three generations, already has lost business as Chrysler and parts suppliers have downsized and people eat out less due to economic worries. The loss of Chrysler’s corporate headquarters is almost unthinkable.

“I can’t imagine moving the building or changing or selling or anything like that,” said Thibodeaux. “Auburn Hills in general is built all around that building.”

Although it may be unimaginable, industry analysts say GM would have no choice but to slash costs if it acquires struggling Chrysler from its current owner, New York private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.

Both sides have been talking for months, but the pace recently has increased. Cerberus wants out of the auto business, and as the credit markets have dried up, GM, worried about running too low on cash before the U.S. auto market rebounds, wants Chrysler’s currency stockpile.

A person familiar with the negotiations said Friday that the talks have advanced to the point where top executives of both companies have looked at a deal and asked for refinements. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are secret.

In August, Chrysler said it had accumulated $11.7 billion in cash and marketable securities as of June 30. That figure remains around $11 billion, the person said, despite Chrysler’s U.S. sales being down 25% through September, the largest decline of any major automaker.

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By Kelly From:Gasgoo.com October 17, 2008

Shanghai, October 17 (Gasgoo.com) General Motors (GM) will introduce its EREV (extended range electric vehicle) Chevrolet Volt to China for production by 2011 to meet the Chinese market demand, Nanfang Daily reported, citing Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman of product development.

Bob Lutz said, Chinese elements were well considered in the design of Chevrolet Volt, which indicates the electric automobile has entered a new stage. And China will be a big market for electric vehicles.

It is reported that Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in series hybrid vehicle by GM, is expected to begin production in 2010.

The vehicle is designed to run purely on electricity from on-board batteries for up to 64km. With the use of a small internal combustion engine driving a generator to resupply the batteries, the vehicle’s range is potentially increased to 579km on the highway (and which can be extended for very long trips by conventional refueling).

Bob Lutz said that Volt, different from the traditional electric vehicles, surely will have a huge market as it solves customers’ concern about driving distance. But the low availability of electric auto parts for the car’s volume production will lead to high price of the first generation Volt.

Bob Lutz is confident about the prospects of the electric vehicles. He said GM has lagged behind Toyota which has promoted its hybrids like Prius for several years. GM sees it unacceptable to lose the first. The world’s biggest auto maker is making efforts to develop vehicles without using gas from now on.

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