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- 1908: General Motors founded.
- 1931: Holden's Motor Body Builders and General Motors Australia
formed General Motors-Holden's Limited.
- 1996: GM leased a small number of electric EV1 cars
to customers in California and Arizona;
production stopped in 1999. The story was documented
in ‘Who Killed the Electric Car’ (2006).
- US brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC,
Hummer, Pontiac, Saturn.
- Overseas subsidiaries include:
Holden (.au),
Opel (.de),
Saab (.se),
Vauxhall (uk).
- 2008: Record oil prices, and the
global financial crisis, brought General Motors near to bankruptcy,
requiring Government help to stay afloat.
- 2009, April 27: The US Government proposed
taking a majority stake in GM. The Pontiac brand was to be phased out.
- 2009, June 1: GM filed for "chapter 11" bankruptcy.
- 2009, June 16: GM and Koenigsegg Group AB,
the Swedish sports car maker, signed a preliminary agreement for
the latter to buy Saab.
But K. backed out of the deal on 24 Nov. 09.
- 2009, July 6:
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the S. District of New York approved
the sale of substantially all of GM Corporation's assets to NGMCO, owned
60.8% by the US Treasury,
17.5% by UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust,
11.7% by Canada and Ontario governments, and
10% by the old GM.
- 2009, September 11: The GM board recommended the sale of 55% of
Opel/Vauxhall to a consortium of Magna International Inc. and
Sberbank (USSR) but, 3 November 2009,
"decided to retain Opel[/Vauxhall]".
- 2009, October 9: Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co.,
Ltd (Tengzhong), signed a "definitive agreement" to
buy the Hummer brand from GM.
However, the deal fell through
-- 24 Feb. 2010.
- 2009, December 18: Failing to find a buyer, GM decided to
"start an orderly wind-down of Saab", but by
Jan. 26 2010 GM had agreed
to sell Saab to Spyker N.V.
for us$74 million and us$326 million in preference shares.
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