GM reportedly pondering new small truck, return to minivans

General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre was apparently quite chatty during his visit to the Management Briefing Seminar in Traverse City, MI this week. In addition to his comments about possibly selling all of GM's stock during the upcoming IPO, he also revealed that the product planning staff under Stephen Carlisle is looking at getting back into market segments the company has or will soon abandon.

After 20 years of unsuccessfully trying to get traction in the minivan market, BusinessWeek reports that GM is considering trying again with stretched version of the European Opel Zafira. Oddly, this comes not long after the automaker decided not to offer the forthcoming similarly sized Chevrolet Orlando in the U.S. market. GM is also apparently revisiting the mid-sized pickup truck. A replacement for the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon twins is under development for overseas markets, but it's not currently planned for sale here.

Freed of much of its debt, GM appears to now be at liberty to look at the entire vehicle market for new opportunities – particularly at the low end for Chevrolet, where it has always had a hard time making profitable products.

[Source: Bloomberg]