GM to halve global platforms and engines by 2018

Before GM headed for bankruptcy, it had eight brands in North America, all in various states of management and loss of control. While going through the bankruptcy, it lost four brands and continues to travel down the road of simplicity as it plans to reduce the number of global vehicles and engines by half.

GM's global product development senior vice president, Mary Barra has said that GM will slash the number of vehicle platforms from 30 in 2010 to 14 by 2018, and trim engine platforms from 20 in 2009 by 12 by 2018 and 10 after.

“More of our components will be common, and more of our vehicles will be global architectures,” said GM CEO Dan Akerson. This will allow the brand to gain manufacturing efficiency and cut development costs while focusing on “Core Platforms”, such as the GMT900 full-size truck structure.