Fritz Henderson, GM’s COO, foresees the future of the car manufacturer relying on four car brands: Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, and Buick. The statement was done after a strategic review of the Hummer and Saab brands.

He further discloses that Pontiac will experience significant production cuts while the Saturn line will have a different loom. GM is also collaborating with the Swedish government to help the Saab brand. Around 75% of the Saab sales is in Europe so the plan will not be a US approach.

The company will push with its plans of heavily investing on the Buick brand in China. This move will have a positive effect on the brand in the United States.

The four core brands of the auto maker comprise 83% of its sales in the United States in 2008.

The plan of the GM group revolves around the price of oil being around $130-$160 per barrel. The company forecasts oil prices to be at the level of $53 per barrel in 2009. The low oil price will be a big challenge for their plug-in vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt.

During a speech the GM COO looked on hind sight how the global financial crisis affected their business. GM needs the next chunk of government aid of $13.4 billion to survive or it will be a disastrous out of cash situation by the end of March.

The first installment for the bailout was given end of December 2008 amounting to $4 billion. The stakeholders are studying the viability plan it forwarded to the US Congress last December 2.

Another major concern for GM is re-grooming itself to look good to the public. These add to the financial concerns and development of new technologies.