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General Motors Announces Changes to India and South Africa Operations

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GM picked up the award for “Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer” for the 2016 model year

Today General Motors announced that it is making key restructuring changes to its GM International operations, including the exit of Chevy from two major global markets.

Specifically, the company will now focus its GM India manufacturing operations on the sole production of vehicles for export, while also transitioning GM South Africa manufacturing over to Isuzu Motors, which purchased the company for light commercial vehicle manufacturing operations. In both markets, the Chevrolet brand will be phased out by the end of 2017.

“As the industry continues to change, we are transforming our business, establishing GM as a more focused and disciplined company,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “We are committed to deploying capital to higher return initiatives that will enable us to lead in our core business and in the future of personal mobility.

“Globally, we are now in the right markets to drive profitability, strengthen our business performance and capitalize on growth opportunities for the long term. We will continue to optimize our operations market by market to further improve our competitiveness and cost base.”

GM says that it decided to make these changes after an extensive review of operations in GM International markets.

“These actions will further allow us to focus our resources on winning in the markets where we have strong franchises and see greater opportunity,” said GM President Dan Ammann. “We have compelling plans for growth in both the top line and the bottom line as we invest for the future.”

GM Executive Vice President and President of GM International, Stefan Jacoby, stressed that the company is running GM International markets with an enterprise approach and doing what is best for the global business.

“In India, our exports have tripled over the past year, and this will remain our focus going forward,” he confirmed. “We determined that the increased investment required for an extensive and flexible product portfolio would not deliver a leadership position or long-term profitability in the domestic market.”

In South Africa, GM will cease manufacturing and selling Chevy vehicles, as Isuzu acquires the automaker’s light commercial vehicle manufacturing.

“After a thorough assessment of our South African operations, we believe it is best for Isuzu to integrate our light commercial vehicle manufacturing operations into its African business,” said Jacoby. “We determined that continued or increased investment in manufacturing in South Africa would not provide GM the expected returns of other global investment opportunities.”