Robert Snell / The Detroit News
General Motors Co. has approved a major update of its full-size pickup trucks, an overhaul delayed during the automaker's financial crisis.
The move will cost several hundred million dollars.
The updated trucks are two or three years away from showrooms. Redesigned Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups will feature new exteriors and interiors, as well as better aerodynamics and fuel efficiency.
The pickups have not been updated since 2006, but GM wants to be more competitive in that segment even as it introduces several new small cars and crossovers, said GM spokesman Scott Fosgard.
GM sold about 500,000 fewer trucks last year, as sales cooled amid the recession and following a year of fluctuating gas prices that chilled demand for a product that generally generates a higher per-unit profit.
The update was approved in November by Chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. and an eight-member executive committee.
"We're not saying trucks are more important than small cars. In every segment we compete, we now have the money and resources to build the world's best vehicles," Fosgard said.
The overhaul also comes at a time automakers have to meet tougher federal fuel-efficiency mandates. Light trucks will have to average 24.1 mpg in the 2011 models that hit dealerships in the fall of 2010.
GM's approval of a truck lineup update came quickly, compared to the old GM's plodding decision-making and product approvals that would have to withstand scrutiny from as many as 70 different committees.
GM's truck committee approached Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman for global product operations, on a recent Tuesday with a request for more money to update the lineup. Stephens took the request to Whitacre and the executive committee on a Friday and the truck team got the money a week later, Fosgard said.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100113/AUTO01/1130406/1148/auto01/GM-to-overhaul-full-size-pickups
