General Motors now anticipates U.S. new car sales in this year to be in the “low 17 million” unit range, showing a widespread expectation that the industry is heading towards a moderate decline, a top executive said on Monday.
“The market is clearly slowing … it’s something we are going to monitor month to month,” Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens informed experts on a conference call. “Pricing is more challenging.”
U.S. new vehicle sales hit a record of 17.55 million systems in the last year after a boom that started in 2010. An excess of nearly-new used vehicles is anticipated to weaken sales this year. Major car manufacturers have reported sales declines for the last three months.
GM had formerly announced it anticipated 2017 new car sales in the “mid-17 million”. Stevens informed experts that sales might fall by 200,000 to 300,000 units this year however that the automaker had “somewhat insulated” itself from a decline by lowering fleet sales, which lower vehicle’ recurring worth.
“We are going to remain disciplined from a go-to market point of view,” Stevens stated.
He restated the company’s target to bring U.S. stocks of its vehicles down to 70 days’ supply by December from 110 days in June.
The automaker also anticipates a higher-than-expected charge for its sale of Opel to Peugeot SA to reach $5.5 billion against its previous estimate of $4.5 billion because of additional costs connected with the deal.
