G.M.’s Quarterly Profit Falls 14%

G.M., the nation’s largest automaker, said global revenue dropped 2 percent during the quarter to $36.9 billion, despite a concerted effort to introduce new models in the United States and Europe.

The automaker’s core North American operations achieved a pretax profit of $1.4 billion during the quarter, a 14 percent decline from the same period a year ago. By comparison, the Ford Motor Company, G.M.’s smaller hometown rival, had pretax earnings of $2.4 billion in the region during the quarter. The earnings show that G.M. still trails Ford significantly on profits earned per vehicle sold in the thriving United States market.

G.M. has struggled to rebuild its business since the recession, when it needed a $49.5 billion government bailout and bankruptcy to survive. The automaker has since cut brands, models and thousands of jobs to bring costs more in line with production and sales.

The company’s chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, said the decline in earnings and revenue did not reflect the progress G.M. is making with new models in the marketplace.

“The year is off to a strong start as we increased our global share with strong new products that are attracting customers around the world,” Mr. Akerson said in a statement.

G.M. lost market share in the United States last year to competitors like Chrysler and Toyota. Mr. Akerson has vowed to reverse that trend this year with vehicles like the new Cadillac ATS sedan and restyled versions of its big pickup trucks.

The company sold 902,000 vehicles in the United States in the first four months of this year, about a 10 percent gain over the same period in 2012. Sales for the overall industry have improved by about 7 percent.

G.M. narrowed its losses in Europe during the quarter. It said it had a pretax loss of $175 million in the region, compared to $294 million in the first quarter of last year.

In Asia, the company said pretax profits were about $495 million, slightly less than a year ago. Its South American operations had a pretax loss of $38 million, compared to income of $153 million last year.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/business/gms-quarterly-profit-falls-14.html?partner=rss&emc=rss