GM Maps Out Strategy to Boost Margins

Mary Barra

General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra says her management team will focus on five strategies to boost the company's global EBIT-adjusted margins from 5.5% in 2013 to 9%-10% by early in the next decade.

The initiatives include greater operating efficiencies, a flood of new products and technologies, growth in China and expansion plans for the company's Cadillac brand and GM Financial unit.

GM reiterates that it expects in 2016 to achieve a 10% operating margin in North America. It says a $1.5 billion swing in operating earnings in Europe will enable that region to post a full-year profit the same year. The company anticipates continuing 9%-10% margins in China.

Barra says GM expects to generate 47% of its global sales in 2019 from models that are no older than 18 months, up from 27% in 2015.