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GM laying off more than 4,000 workers Monday morning

According to reports from Automotive News, The Detroit News, and CNN, General Motors plans to begin laying off more than 4,000 salaried workers starting Monday morning. In a statement to AN, a spokesperson for the automaker said, "We are not confirming timing. Our employees are our priority. We will communicate with them first." We've been expecting layoffs at General Motors since November, 2018. At the time, the Detroit-based automaker announced it would seek to shed 8,100 salaried employees, shut down five assembly plants in North America, and kill off several slow-selling models. One month earlier, GM offered buyout packages to 18,000 workers and said it would seek to cut its global workforce by 25 percent. A spokesperson said at the time the moves were "proactive steps to get ahead of the curve by accelerating our efforts to address overall business performance." The cost-cutting moves are expected to save GM up to $2.5 billion in 2019 and as much as $6 billion by 2020. David Kudla, CEO and chief investment strategist of Mainstay Capital Management, referred to the impending culling as "Black Monday" and told The Detroit News that the layoffs would begin around 7:30 a.m. and continue in waves throughout the coming days and weeks. GM plans to deliver on its fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 earnings report on Wednesday. President Donald Trump plans to deliver the annual State of the Union address a day earlier on Tuesday. We expect to hear plenty more from both sides over the next several days.

Cadillac to add small sedan, crossover as part of major product blitz

Cadillac will add a small sedan and a compact crossover to its lineup in the next several years as part of an ambitious product blitz that will remake its lineup. The sedan will slot below the ATS, which is currently Cadillac's smallest four-door car. It's scheduled to arrive in 2017, Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen told Autoblog at the Detroit Auto Show. The sedan will be followed late that year or in early 2018 by a compact crossover, which will be positioned below the SRX. The crucial redesign of the SRX – Cadillac's top seller – arrives in 2016. It will switch to the brand's new naming system and change to an "XT" prefix followed by a number. The naming scheme debuts on the CT6, which launches in late 2015 and will be positioned above the CTS and XTS sedans. Cadillac also wants to add another crossover that sits between the SRX and its flagship SUV, the Escalade, at some point. Further out, Cadillac's long-awaited Mercedes-Benz S-Class fighter could arrive around 2020, and it would serve as the flagship or "showcase of the brand," de Nysschen said. Cadillac is also looking to expand its powertrain portfolio and is contemplating a wide range of options, including hybrids, plug-in electric vehicles and diesel engines. The new cars and crossovers are part of a $12-billion investment in Cadillac, which de Nysschen described as "an unheard level of capital" from General Motors. In total, the brand will receive eight new products through 2020. "Our product offensive will provide the substance for our ambitions," he said. De Nysschen has set high goals – and made major changes – at Cadillac since he took over the 113-year-old luxury brand in September. The brand moves to a separate headquarters in New York this year, away from GM's base in Detroit, and it has switched advertising agencies in a bid to elevate its image. Cadillac's sales declined 6.5 percent in the United States in 2014 to 170,750 units, and it has the smallest volume of GM's four brands. "Here in the US we continue to make progress, but we also face challenges," de Nysschen said. He added the brand's lineup "clearly limits our growth opportunities in the US market." Still, de Nysschen is taking the long view for Cadillac, noting it took years to turn around Audi, where he was president of its US operations for eight years. Cadillac's global sales have inched up five percent globally this year, spurred by a 47-percent surge in China.

Even if GM does close all 5 of those plants, it'll still have too many

DETROIT — General Motors' monumental announcement on Monday that it will close three car assembly plants and two powertrain plants in North America and slash its workforce will only partially close the gap between capacity and demand for the automaker's sedans, according to a Reuters analysis of industry production and capacity data. Sales of traditional passenger cars in North America have been declining for the past six years and are still withering. After GM ends production next year at factories in Michigan, Ohio and Ontario, it will still have four U.S. passenger-car plants — all operating at less than 50 percent of rated capacity, according to figures supplied by LMC Automotive. In comparison, Detroit-based rivals Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will have one car plant each in North America after 2019. The Detroit Three are facing rapidly dwindling demand for traditional passenger cars from U.S. consumers, many of whom have shifted to crossovers and trucks. Passenger cars accounted for 48 percent of retail light-vehicle sales in the United States in 2014, according to market researchers at J.D. Power and Associates. This year, sedans will account for less than a third of light vehicle sales. That shift in turn has left most North American car plants operating far below their rated capacities, while many SUV and truck plants are running on overtime. The collapse in passenger-car demand is a challenge for nearly all automakers in the United States, including Japan's Toyota and Honda, which have the top-selling models in the compact and midsize car segments. Toyota executives said last month they are evaluating the company's U.S. model lineup. But Toyota also plans to build compact Corolla sedans at a new $1.6 billion factory it is building in Alabama with partner Mazda. The obstacles facing GM in its plans to close more auto factories became apparent on Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to block payment of government electric vehicle subsidies to GM. While it is not certain that Trump unilaterally has the power to do that, he made it clear he intends to use his office to pressure the company to keep open a small car plant in Ohio that GM says will stop building vehicles in March.