`
shake863
  • 浏览: 634232 次
  • 性别: Icon_minigender_1
  • 来自: 北京
社区版块
存档分类
最新评论

Era Ends as GM Snubs Saturn, Other Makes

阅读更多
通用汽车(General Motors Corp.)打算抛弃土星(Saturn)庞蒂亚克(Pontiac)萨博(Saab)和悍马(Hummer)品牌,也意味着在抛弃数十年来曾助其主导汽车市场的产品战略。只留下四个骨干品牌后,通用汽车将成为一家更干练业务更集中的汽车公司,但也要冒上让本已下滑的市场份额进一步缩水的风险。因为通用汽车将丧失这四个被弃品牌的忠实用户,他们可能对驾驶雪佛兰(Chevrolet)别克(Buick)凯迪拉克(Cadillac)和GMC汽车毫无兴趣。密歇根州沃伦市的土星汽车经销店总经理拉塞尔•麦克白(Russell McBain)周三称,为了生存,通用汽车必须尽其所能。多年来一直受伤的是我们。Kate Linebaugh/WSJ密歇根州一家土星汽车销售店丰田汽车(Toyota Motor Corp.)的汽车销量在2008年超过通用汽车排名世界第一。而通用汽车有可能再经受一次打击--丰田有望最快在今年夺取全美汽车销量第一的位置。今年1月份通用汽车的销售份额为19.5%,如果不计土星庞蒂亚克萨博和悍马四个品牌的销量,就只剩下16.9%,比丰田低1个百分点。一些土星汽车经销商希望通用汽车能剥离此品牌,作为一个独立的公司,而不是彻底关闭。目前有一批土星汽车的经销商在与通用汽车进行为期60天的可行性评估。这些经销商有可能将为别的制造商销售土星品牌汽车,有可能会是外国厂商。Suburban Collection董事长兼首席执行长大卫•费舍(David Fischer)称,这将成为某家厂商进入全球最大汽车市场的廉价跳板。这家公司在佛罗里达和密歇根州经营着8家土星汽车销售店。通用汽车在周二向政府提交的 兴计划中披露了精简品牌的意图,表示该公司的思路发生了重大转变。扩大品牌队伍,以迎合从大学生到老人等不同类型消费者需要,这曾是通用汽车赖以不断发展并把持全球汽车业龙头位置将近80年的经营模式的一个组成部分。但在巨额亏损和依赖政府救助的现实环境下,通用汽车将把业务收缩到效益最好的品牌上。土星庞蒂亚克萨博和悍马这四个品牌一直难以吸引到顾客,以致于很多要卖给租赁公司企业团购客户和内部员工。2008年这四个品牌共售出50.4万辆,其中四成是卖给团购客户和自己的员工。而这类销售的利润通常要比零售来得少。通用汽车在其 兴计划中称,土星庞蒂亚克萨博和悍马这四个品牌在2003至2007年间平均每年产生11亿美元的税前亏损。通用汽车在 兴计划中表示,由军用车型发展而来的悍马品牌将被卖掉,或是逐步淘汰。瑞典的小众汽车品牌萨博将在一个月内申请破产保护。庞蒂亚克将把规模精减至一到两个车型,甚至有可能会全部退市。多年来分析师一直在敦促通用汽车精减品牌。但由于通用汽车在本世纪初为砍掉Oldsmobile这个品牌估计耗费了20亿美元,公司管理层一直坚持认为这样做的代价太高。然而,精减品牌可以压缩经营成本,因为每个品牌都需要一笔资金用于产品开发广告经销商支持和其他方面。按照通用汽车的计划,除了到2012年将主力汽车品牌由8个减少至4个外,还要将在美国投放的车型由48个压缩到36个。那些将要消失的车型包括雪佛兰的Cobalt和庞蒂亚克的Torrent。这些车型退市将有助于提升每种幸存车型的销量。据通用汽车提交给美国政府的资料称,2007年丰田汽车每种车型的平均销量为9万辆,例如凯美瑞LE(Camry LE),相比之下通用汽车每种车型只有5.4万辆。Kate Linebaugh / Neal E. Boudette相关阅读通用汽车寻求更多资金  裁员4.7万 2009-02-18该让通用汽车破产还是继续输血? 2009-02-16通用汽车拟收回德尔福公司的部分资产 2009-02-10 本文涉及股票或公司document.write (truthmeter('2009年02月20日13:47', 'GM'));General Motors Corp.总部地点:美国上市地点:纽约证交所股票代码:GMdocument.write (truthmeter('2009年02月20日13:47', 'C.XX'));Chrysler Llc总部地点:美国


In turning its back on Saturn, Pontiac, Saab and Hummer, General Motors Corp. is abandoning a decades-old product strategy that once helped ensure its dominance.Left with just four key brands, GM will be a leaner, more focused car company. But it also risks a further slide in its already-shrunken market share as it loses customers who gravitated to the four orphaned lines. These buyers may have little interest in driving a Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac or GMC truck.'GM has to do what it has to do to survive,' Russell McBain, general manager of the Saturn dealership in Warren, Mich., said Wednesday. 'For years that has been to our detriment.'In 2008, Toyota Motor Corp. supplanted GM as the world's largest auto seller. GM now faces the possibility of another blow -- Toyota could move ahead of GM as soon as this year to become the largest auto seller in the U.S.In January, GM had market share of 19.5%. Without Saturn, Pontiac, Saab and Hummer, its share would have been 16.9% -- a point less than Toyota's.Some Saturn dealers now hope that instead of closing the brand, GM will spin it off as a separate company. A team of Saturn dealers is spending 60 days working with GM to evaluate the possibility. These dealers would sell vehicles under the Saturn brand made by other manufacturers, possibly from overseas.'This is going to be somebody's low-cost entry to the world's largest car market,' said David Fischer Sr., chairman and chief executive officer of Suburban Collection, which operates eight Saturn dealerships in Florida and Michigan.GM's move to pare brands -- disclosed in a recovery plan it filed Tuesday with the U.S. government -- represents a major shift in thinking at the company. Adding brands to appeal to different types of consumers, from college students to senior citizens, was part of the formula that enabled GM to grow and remain the world's largest auto maker for nearly 80 years.But faced with huge losses and relying on government handouts, GM will shrink to its most successful brands.Saturn, Hummer, Saab and Pontiac have all struggled to attract customers. That prompted GM to sell large numbers of them to car-rental concerns, corporate fleet buyers and GM's own employees. Of the 504,000 vehicles sold under the four brands in 2008, 40% went to fleets and employees. Such sales generally are less profitable than those to consumer buyers.In its recovery plan, GM said Saturn, Hummer and Saab generated an average annual pretax loss of $1.1 billion a year between 2003 and 2007.Hummer, the maker of hulking sport-utility vehicles inspired by military models, will be sold or phased out. Saab, the Swedish niche brand, could file for bankruptcy protection within a month, GM said in its recovery plan. Pontiac will be reduced to just one or two models and essentially cease to exist as a full line.For years, analysts have urged GM to pare its brands. But GM executives insisted it would be too expensive after spending an estimated $2 billion to wind down Oldsmobile earlier this decade. Yet cutting brands shaves operating costs because each brand requires a certain amount of spending on product development advertising, dealer support and other expenses.In addition to trimming its main brands from eight to four by 2012, GM also plans to cut the number of individual U.S. models to 36 from 48. Among those that will disappear are the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac Torrent. Eliminating models should help GM sell more of each surviving nameplate.In 2007, Toyota sold an average of 90,000 vehicles per nameplate, such as the Camry LE, while each GM nameplate sold 54,000 on average, according to GM's submission to the federal government.Kate Linebaugh / Neal E. Boudette
分享到:
评论

相关推荐

Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics