Barra said GM executives will update investors on its plans in China and India later. Apple also is testing its own autonomous vehicles, and Uber has created a lab in Pittsburgh to develop them.
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But GM said that its leadership in the automotive industry would give it an edge against a few of competitors as everyone struggles to develop artificial intelligence that can anticipate drives decision and road conditions.
GM also said it will launch two new car-sharing programs, one that operates in New York City today and another in an unnamed USA city. The unit’s operating profit was about $800 million a year ago, and GM said its goal is to more than double profits by 2018. It also plans to launch a car-sharing service in an unidentified USA city early next year.
Dan Ammann, the automaker’s president, has said the company can expand in emerging markets and also boost earnings from its GM Financial lending arm.
“We have already developed a lot of this enabling technology because we saw this coming”, Reuss told the analysts. But GM is experimenting with autonomous cars “so we’re right there every step of the way”, once that model changes. Now its battery cost per kilowatt hour is $145, but that will drop to $100 by 2018, a reduction that could make the cars more competitive with internal combustion engines. The efficient 2017 Chevrolet Volts are fitted with a lithium ion battery pack and an electric motor that eliminates the need for any sort of gas for an impressive range of around 60 miles, depending on how the driver utilizes the vehicle. GM earned $3.05 per share in 2014 before items.
The No. 1 USA automaker said it is targeting an increase in earnings per share to between $5 and $5.50 per share before items, from the $4.50 per share that Wall Street analysts expect for this year.
GM said it will have revenue of $155bn this year as well as global margins of 6.8 percent and a 24 percent return on invested capital.
In a separate statement, GM reported a 12.5 percent year-over-year increase in its USA vehicle sales for the month of September 2015.
GM said it expects to grow its business over the next five years through key initiatives, including a $5 billion investment in an all-new Chevrolet growth market vehicle family.
Barra said it’s too early to gauge the impact of Volkswagen’s diesel emissions cheating scandal on government pollution regulations worldwide, but she said GM plans no changes.
“We have confidence in our diesel technology”, she says. The projects will “test hardware and software systems and gain insights into car-sharing user experiences”.
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The announcement was made by the firm’s chief executive, Mary Barra, and other top company officials at an investor conference in Milford, Michigan.
