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Yesterday on the call for GM's annual meeting I could not help but feel a bit sorry for GM brass, as some investors completely disconnected from reality called in with comments. A couple really caught my attention, but their voice I could tell both were older gentleman, and I kind of felt sorry for them as the world has passed them by. One of them went on and on about Mary Barra having too much power, and listed her bad decisions, the biggest was the closing of the Lordstown plant, which he believed the Cruze is just what GM needs right now. He went on to talk about how Mary let Toyota catch up to GM in Volume and how bad that was.
My thoughts on this guy, GM cancelled a lot of programs and left many markets they were not making money in. GM management did this because they knew the company was overstretched, and had too many different products for the amount of engineering / capital resources they had, so products had been allowed to become stale in the market. GM also was beginning to realize the future was electric, and knew that transition was going to need a lot of capital, and engineering resources to make happen, so they started cutting, some good products got cut, IMO Cruze was not one of them, but CT6, and Volt I felt had more potential, what did all these cut programs have in common though? None of them made a profit, or sold without incentives and advertising, basically they were a drain on GM engineering, and capital. GM had a need to right size the company and product line in preparation for the shit to EV's.
Next guy called in and his comments were that GM has it wrong on EV's and the EV movement is only coming on due to Biden's "failed administration". We can argue about Biden, but there is no argument about EV's, once people drive them, they are not goin back to ICE. He went on and on about how the EV thing is dying, hit all the right wing bullet points, not enough materials, child labor, electricity is coal, yada yada yada, but I had to laugh when he said EV's are slow and boring.
My thoughts, again, I felt sorry for someone that society has left so far behind, perhaps Mary should take him for a ride in the HummerEV to show him the boredom.
**Why nobody asked the question about keeping dealerships under control on markups, I was stunned, and wished I had prepared a question, because if you want to look at one thing that is hurting GM's relationship with customers, bingo, that is it.
My thoughts on this guy, GM cancelled a lot of programs and left many markets they were not making money in. GM management did this because they knew the company was overstretched, and had too many different products for the amount of engineering / capital resources they had, so products had been allowed to become stale in the market. GM also was beginning to realize the future was electric, and knew that transition was going to need a lot of capital, and engineering resources to make happen, so they started cutting, some good products got cut, IMO Cruze was not one of them, but CT6, and Volt I felt had more potential, what did all these cut programs have in common though? None of them made a profit, or sold without incentives and advertising, basically they were a drain on GM engineering, and capital. GM had a need to right size the company and product line in preparation for the shit to EV's.
Next guy called in and his comments were that GM has it wrong on EV's and the EV movement is only coming on due to Biden's "failed administration". We can argue about Biden, but there is no argument about EV's, once people drive them, they are not goin back to ICE. He went on and on about how the EV thing is dying, hit all the right wing bullet points, not enough materials, child labor, electricity is coal, yada yada yada, but I had to laugh when he said EV's are slow and boring.
My thoughts, again, I felt sorry for someone that society has left so far behind, perhaps Mary should take him for a ride in the HummerEV to show him the boredom.
**Why nobody asked the question about keeping dealerships under control on markups, I was stunned, and wished I had prepared a question, because if you want to look at one thing that is hurting GM's relationship with customers, bingo, that is it.