GM sales chief says U.S. rebound a
General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) expects the recovery in the U.S. auto market will be “a long haul” that only begins in the second half of the year, a senior executive at the No. 1 U.S. automaker said on Wednesday.
The market comments by Mark LaNeve, vice president for sales for GM North America, were the first by a top GM executive since Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) cut its outlook for U.S. sales last week, citing rising gas prices and sharply lower demand for its trucks and SUVs.
“I think it’s going to be a long haul,” LaNeve said at an industry conference in Los Angeles, when asked when he expected U.S. auto sales to recover. “We think it starts to get better in the back half of the year.”
But LaNeve said the battered U.S. housing market and consumer confidence would have to both improve to support a rebound for auto sales.
“We don’t look for it to come roaring back instant payday loan. We think it will be a slow ramp up,” LaNeve said at the event in Los Angeles sponsored by Automotive News.
U.S. sales for GM are down almost 17 percent for the first four months of the year, compared with a decline of about 8 percent for industrywide sales.
Most analysts now see U.S. sales of cars and light trucks dropping to near 15 million units in 2008, down from about 16.15 million in 2007 and the lowest annual tally for the industry since 1994.
GM said in late April when it announced a $3 billion first-quarter loss that it would face a slower recovery in its home market than it had first forecast and a faster shift out of higher margin trucks and SUVs in response to higher gas prices.