General Motors Co., in the midst of launching 20 new or significantly refreshed vehicles in the U.S. this year, is turning to some former white-collar employees to help it meet the challenge.
Among the most important new vehicles are the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Those big money-makers, last redesigned as 2007 models, are just hitting dealerships. GM North America President Mark Reuss said the launch is going smoothly, in part because the Detroit automaker has hired back retirees to work with suppliers.
“With the trucks, we hired a lot of our retirees that were experts in these areas of the car and sat them in these suppliers so... they can help impart what’s going to happen to the supplier when we start (full production),” Reuss said in an interview.
Full-size trucks typically bring in about $10,000 profit per vehicle for automakers. GM’s redesigned trucks and expected higher average transaction prices should help boost GM’s profits by more than $1 billion annually, said Joseph Spak, auto industry analyst with RBC Capital Markets, in a June research note.