New line-up

The new company will focus on GM's successful brands -- Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC -- with fewer nameplates and a more competitive level of marketing support per brand.

Obama said that GM had prepared a "viable and achievable" plan to rise again, and expressed his confidence that the new GM would be able to produce "high-quality, safe and fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow."

In a bid to readjust to the shift in customers' buying patterns from oil-guzzling SUVs and trucks to fuel-efficient cars, the new GM announced the launch of a new product line-up in 2009 and 2010,including the China-manufactured Chevy Cruze.

It has recently introduced Chevrolet Volt, an all-electric plug-in compact car dubbed the company's "new DNA" that "represents a fundamental reinvention of the American automobile industry."

"The new GM is here to stay, and our brands position us to compete well in profitable segments with vehicles that are second-to-none," said Henderson.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)