WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Automaker General Motors Co. (GM) said on Wednesday that it expects its annual revenue to double to $280 billion by the end of the decade as the company makes the move to all electric vehicles and expands its operations to beyond selling cars and heavy duty vehicles. The company also projected higher operating profit margins between 12 percent and 14 percent.
The company said in a statement that the revenue targets were based on a rolling average of around $140 billion for the automaker in the past few years. In 2020, the company posted revenues of $122.5 billion, down 10.8 percent from last year, affected mainly by factory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Commenting on the revenue projections, company CEO and Chair Mary Barra said, 'When you look at all of the investments we've been making for five years plus, that's what positions us today to really be in execution mode. We have great confidence in our ability to grow revenues.'
At its two-day investor meeting, the automaker plans to give details as to how it will achieve its revenue goals through the traditional operations and its latest software and data focused businesses. The investor meeting is also expected to impress investors to consider General Motors more like a technology start-up like Tesla, which is valued at $750 billion. General Motors' present worth stands at $79 billion.
The company expects its traditional auto sales to rise between $195 billion and $235 billion a year, up from $138 billion. Its latest businesses like autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise and BrightDrop commercial EV business is projected to grow from $2 billion to $80 billion during the decade.
General Motors said that it is going to expand on a large scale, its production of electric vehicles, with more than 50 percent of its North America and China plants having the production capacity to manufacture electric vehicles. At present, only two GM plants in North America are capable of producing electric vehicles, but the company has announced plans to make least three others electric vehicle hubs by 2023.
General Motors President Mark Reuss told investors that the company will soon set up a second assembly plant for battery electric trucks. The company's first EV pickups, including the upcoming GMC Hummer, is being planned for a Detroit plant.
The automaker will invest a sum of $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025, as it plans to become an all-electric automaker by 2035. General Motors has plans to surpass Tesla as the American leader in electric vehicles but no timeline was give. The company expects to sell 1 million electric vehicles annually by 2025.
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