DETROIT — General Motors' car sales are falling faster than those of its domestic rivals, but the company insists it won't join Ford Motor Co. and FCA US in abandoning most sedans.
"We have to continue to listen to our customers and react to their needs," Alan Batey, GM's North America president, said in an interview.
"And right now, there's a lot of customers that want to buy cars, and they're big segments. That some of our competitors have decided to exit them, that just creates a bigger opportunity for us."
GM, at this point, has not announced any drastic cuts to its car lineup. In fact, it has refreshed the Chevrolet Camaro, Cruze, Malibu and Spark for the 2019 model year and last month announced a $175 million investment in a Lansing, Mich., plant to build two of Cadillac's next-generation sedans.
Batey, who also is global head of Chevrolet, declined to comment on reports that GM plans to discontinue the subcompact Chevy Sonic as early as this year and eventually discontinue the Impala large sedan and Volt plug-in hybrid sedan. The third-generation Volt is expected to have a crossover profile similar to Chevy's approach with the fully electric Bolt.
For now, GM has been cutting back car production to keep inventories from getting out of hand. It eliminated one of two daily shifts building the Chevy Cruze compact in Lordstown, Ohio, last month and has suspended production at Lordstown and other plants at various points to slow output.