General Motors Hits Costly $5 Billion Speed Bump Overseas

China was once the land of promise for Detroit automakers. With the country's booming middle class, and surging light-vehicle market, the companies could only see dollar signs. At first, automakers such as General Motors (NYSE: GM) thrived in China, and it became GM's largest market for sales volume for a time. However, the alarm bells have been ringing for some time, and now GM is making drastic changes, at a significant cost.General Motors' sales in China peaked in 2017 at 4 million vehicles, but have since dropped by almost half. This has obviously had a huge effect on profits, with GM posting three consecutive quarters of losses in the country. If years of sliding sales in China weren't alarming enough, Bank of America analyst John Murphy sent a pretty clear message during his annual "Car Wars" presentation: "I think you have to see the [Detroit Three] exit China as soon as they possibly can." Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool