General Motors Analysis Essay

The goal of this consulting report is to analyze the strategy for General Motors. To start, a five forces analysis of the automobile industry was conducted. The five forces include the following factors: competition among rivals, threat of new entrants, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes, and role of complements. Understanding the influence of each of these factors provides insight into the attractiveness of the automobile industry. Such an understanding is necessary for an effective critique of General Motors’ strategy for the future.

The United States of America is one of the biggest automobile markets in the world. This trend has also created awareness for environmentalist to bring attention to rising level of pollution and emission within the cities and metropolis. As response, the U.S. Government is encouraging the automobile manufacturers to produce clean and renewable alternative vehicles that will drastically reduce pollution and emission. Subsequently, the automobile industry has witnessed a gradual introduction of environmental friendly vehicles that use clean and renewable energy to encourage less pollution and safer environment. The manufactures of these vehicles have introduced into the market three categories of electric passenger car

Through my research question, I hope to learn whether electric vehicles make a big enough difference to help our environment. I also want to explore why we have not gone entirely electric and specific reasons as to why people are afraid of change. People find switching to an electric vehicle to be a huge lifestyle change.

Electric cars are becoming more and more a part of the world today. Society can see them everywhere, from the streets to TV. Car companies like Nissan and Chevy have their own line up of electric cars that perform well. Now one of the most popular car companies, Tesla, can make the Lamborghini of electric cars. To help lower emission levels and jumpstart the industry, the federal government offers a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of pure electric vehicles (Schaal, 2015). Which brings up some common questions; are all these changes in the car industry a good change from the traditional gas engine and are electric cars truly better than Gas powered vehicles making gas powered vehicles slowly become obsolete. Electric cars barely have any maintenance needed compared to gas powered vehicles. Emissions

General Motors incorporates entrepreneurship and innovation into its business objectives. This is evident in General Motors Vision statement which states that its goal is to “lead in advanced technologies and quality by creating the world’s best vehicles”. (1) For instance General Motors has an extensive R & D, Design, and Engineering department that oversees the creativity, innovation, and invention of its strategic technologies and innovation programs which are aligned with its corporate vision. In order to lead in advanced technologies of the world’s best vehicles General Motors incorporates entrepreneurship and innovation concepts, which are essential to competing in the global market place.(2) In the spirit of entrepreneurship, which

Electric cars have always been a thing of the future. The promise of a “green” mode of transportation is something that most people would love to have. Until recently, only a few manufacturers have even attempted the mass production of electric vehicles. The early attempts by General Motors (GM) in the 1990’s to mass produce electric cars mostly ended up in failure. Electric car customers were forced to deal with long re-charging times, a much lower range compared to gasoline powered cars, higher vehicle costs, and limited model styles to choose from. Though some were willing to make these sacrifices, the vast majority were not, which ultimately led to the end of electric vehicles 20 years ago.

There are new technologies in automotives out there now. For example, there is the electric car. The only problem with this is that the car needs to be plugged in and can only run for four to six hours at a time, making it hard for long distance travel. Another example is a vehicle that uses a combination of a gasoline and electric engines. They call it a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). This particular vehicle used no gas while idling and the gasoline engine turns off while the vehicle is stopped. As a result, this vehicle uses less gasoline and the tank lasts longer. The electric motor boosts acceleration so not as much gasoline is used. The HEV has a regenerative braking system that recharges the battery. This vehicle emits half of what an ultra low emission vehicle does, so is much better for the environment. It is already possible that by the year 2003 this type of vehicle will cost less because of various state and national tax incentive plans to lower the cost significantly. This has already been accepted in Maryland

I recently read a nonfiction science book by Jill C. Wheeler called Alternative Cars. Many people don’t know this but electric cars were invented before gas powered cars, The first practical electric car was invented in 1884 while the gas car was invented in 1885 by Karl Benz. Cars were owned only by the rich back then and electric cars were considered ladies cars because you didn’t need to crank the engine to start it and it went much slower with a very small amount of power. Electric cars soon became rare when Henry Ford came out with the Ford Model T, which sold over 15 million cars between 1908 and 1927. Electric cars were so expensive compared to the mass produced Model T that they ceased production. The idea of electric cars came back again in the 1960s after a severe decrease in petroleum. Around this time many people became worried about pollution and sought cars with better gas millage which produced less CO2. In 1996 General Motors (GM) Mass produced an electric car they named the EV1, it became popular because it was inexpensive compared to the previous cars made. In 2004 GM gave in to the oil companies pressure to stop production and blamed their lack of consumers who wanted their product. In 2006 Tesla Motors came out with the lightweight, fast, and sporty Tesla Roadster. This was not

So we all know that cars use gasoline right? And when cars use gasoline, they create carbon dioxide which increases global warming. But when you hear about the idea of electric cars, you would be excited and you wanted to order one instantly. You were ready to abandon your old cars and soon you will be slashing your carbon footprint into that sexy new vintage Tesla Model S. But if you are selling that old car you have had for years to buy the new Tesla, all you really are doing is just buying a bright shiny eco-friendly car. Yes, it may be the new trend of the next generation, but it still has its downsides. Usually, the companies who make electric cars like to market them as the greenest object known to mankind. Yet that message they are sending

Because of environmental concerns and competition companies spend and must continue to spend considerable time and resources on research and development. There are several technologies that the auto industry could adopt in the next half century. One possibility is that new fuels and engines will be developed that are more environmentally friendly and get better fuel milage. At the moment there are several possibilities, “The top 4 technologies powering alternative fuel cars: biodiesel, ethanol, hybrid, and hydrogen.” (Cars Direct, 2012) Another potential scenario is that vehicles in the US will become electronic or hybrid or utilize solar power. Currently several companies are working on a technology that would allow cars to communicate with each other on the road. This technology is called vehicle-to-vehicle or V2V. “[The] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2010 [said] that V2V has the potential to reduce 79 percent of target vehicle crashes on the road.” There are many other

The electric car is not, by any means, a new concept. The electric car was first introduced in the 19th century, but as oil was more plentiful and much cheaper than electricity, the internal combustion engine came to the forefront of the transportation sector.1 Now, as oil reserves around the globe have reached the lowest since 1973 and gas prices the world over are soaring,1 the world has turned back to the electric car.1 The electric car was endorsed by the United States Government in 2009 as “a promising alternative to petroleum in the transportation sector”, and 2.1 billion dollars has been allocated to subsidies for battery and component manufacturers.3 Despite

The Ford Model T, the world’s first mass produced car. It was a breakthrough in transportation. See, back then, everybody thought that we had unlimited fossil fuels such as gasoline. Then, more recently, scientists discovered that we did indeed have limited resources, they also started to notice the polluted emissions of cars. As the demand for more fuel efficient and more eco friendly cars rose, car companies such as GM, Toyota, as well Mitsubishi invested millions in developing fully electric cars. But, for this research, we will be using Tesla Motors as our model standard. Electric cars are now more popular than ever and now they have been mass produced long enough that we are now finally seeing their long term footprint on the environment, and the results are surprising. Electric cars don’t have an eco footprint as good as many people thought due to how they are produced, how they get their electric power as well as their recyclability-or lack thereof.

General Motors was once a back bone of American economy. It was one of those organizations who were the driving force of American automotive industry single handedly. But like any other enterprise, it has its strengths and weaknesses. Global presence with an impeccable distribution system which ensures a highest reach out couple with strong research and development gives it a competitive edge over its rivals however it has also borne its share of trouble mainly caused by recession. But now that market is picking up again, GM is also showing steady growth.

The global recession along with the soaring gas prices hurt the auto-industry very badly. It was so severe that two out of the three American automakers, General Motors (GM) and Chrysler, would fail and liquidate without government intervention. About 1.1 million people were hired in the American auto industry (Welch, 2010), making structural unemployment a big issue. However the two firms were burning through billions of dollars in months, making proper

The characteristics of the global motor vehicle industry are a boom in certain places and a bust in others all due to economic conditions in different nations. Four years after tow of Detroit Michigan’s big three went into bankruptcy American car makers are going “full throttle” with sales in August hitting an annual rate that if substantiated can take them back over 16 million and that is a rate that was last hit before the economic crisis and 80% higher than 2009 when GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy. The opposite is happening in Europe being in its sixth year slump now and with a weak economy, high petroleum prices and an aging