NEW YORK: Strong demand for pricey, high-end trucks in North America boosted General Motors' earnings, offsetting lower car sales, especially in China, the company announced on Thursday .
"We're really starting to see the earnings potential of the truck enterprise," said GM Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevara. In North America, GM vehicle sales fell four per cent, clipped in part by lower inventories of some trucks as the company rolls out the updated models.Suryadevara described the launches as"cadenced," aimed first at the light-duty pickup market where vehicles endowed with state-of-the-art connectivity and other features command prices of US$45,000 and higher. GM's market share in this segment rose during the quarter.
"We think the fundamentals remain strong, especially in the truck market," Suryadevara told reporters on a conference call. The company plans a series of vehicle launches in China in the second half of the year that should sell well, but Suryadevara said macro conditions remained challenging.GM's autonomous vehicle division, Cruise, last month pushed back the timeframe for commercial deployment of self-driving taxies, which had originally been targeted for 2019.