Speaking to Reuters, General Motors’ Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said that the company’s new models are helping the automaker gain U.S. market share regardless of Toyota’s recall problems. Lutz said that GM expects its U.S. market share to be “definitely higher” than the 19.9 percent it achieved in 2009.
“If the competitor’s weakness at some point results in lower sales for them and better sales for everybody else, that’s something that obviously we’ll accept,” Lutz said. ”But as far as we are concerned, it is not a factor. We’re not planning on that. We were going to gain share anyway.”
GM’s U.S. sales were up 14 percent in January from the same period a year earlier. GM’s market share rose to 20.9 percent.
Toyota, which is seeing sales take a major hit due to recall issues, saw its market share fall to 14.1 percent from 17 percent for all of 2009. January sales for the Japanese automaker were down 16 percent.
- By: Omar Rana
Source: Reuters
