Milestones don't get bigger than this. General Motors, currently the world's second-largest car-maker and the largest in the world for much of its 106-year existence, has officially crossed the 500 million unit production milestone. Yes, that's a half-billion vehicles rolled out from GM's plants worldwide. Needless to say, no other automaker ever has achieved this so far and it is going to take long, really long, for others to even come close.
It took until 1964 for General Motors to cross the first 100 million production mark. Interestingly, the subsequent 100 million marks were breached in 1978, 1991 and 2003, much earlier than it took to cross the first hundred. At present, GM operates more than 170 sites spread across 31 countries employing around 190,000 employees.
Speaking on the occasion, GM CEO Mary Barra said, “During 2015, we expect to sell more than 1,000 new vehicles per hour, 24 hours per day. This adds up to nearly 10 million vehicles, the most in our history. I look at this extraordinary volume as 10 million opportunities to prove what kind of company we are and to say thank you.” GM also announced a spate of investments and plant upgradations as part of the celebrations to mark this truly remarkable milestone.
With a strong palette of brands that include Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Opel, General Motors enjoys an enviable position in China and USA, the two largest markets in the world in terms of volume. Ironically, the General is hardly putting on a show in India, churning out flop after flop and struggling to find favour in our market. With a spate of models apparently getting ready for launch in India, let's hope their current situation in India changes towards the better.
Regardless of that, it is time for us to take our collective hats off for what GM has achieved. Not many car-makers would be privileged enough to cross this mark.
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