GM Plans Onslaught of Crossovers by 2009!

Date Posted 08-05-2005

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — General Motors confirmed Thursday it will launch at least eight more crossover — car/SUV "mixes" — vehicles by 2009.That goal, combined with the six crossovers the company has introduced already, will account for 20 percent of all GM vehicle sales in the U.S."Four years from now, we'll have 14 crossovers, accounting for 800,000 units annually, give or take, representing about one out of every five GM vehicles sold," John Smith, vice president of global product planning at GM, said at the Center for Automotive Research's annual conference here.As Inside Line reported in June, the expanded crossover lineup will include new large crossovers from Buick, GMC and Saturn, as well as smaller crossovers from Chevrolet and Pontiac. GM says it currently sells about 430,000 crossovers per year. Market-wide sales of the popular vehicles in the U.S. increased 15 percent to about 991,000 during the first half of 2005, compared with the same period in 2004.Smith added that GM has boosted its investment in product development to $8 billion from $7 billion a year ago in order to develop more exciting vehicles.What this means to you: Despite its commitment to crossover vehicles, GM will face increasingly stiff competition from the Japanese and crosstown rivals Ford and Chrysler.