General Motors began a new chapter yesterday, promising new products and technologies, new ways of working and even new ways of buying its cars on eBay.

Less than three hours after US Government and GM officials had signed documents completing the sale of the company’s “good” assets, Fritz Henderson, the carmaker’s chief executive, said that he was determined to bring about a profound culture change in the company.

He announced a flatter organisational structure, stripping out layers of management, shedding 35 per cent of the company’s salaried executives, and eliminating its regional operating structure.

Admitting that “the culture at GM has been an impediment to change”, Mr Henderson said that he and other senior managers would travel every month to meet suppliers, customers, employees and dealers.

“Beginning next week, we will launch a ‘Tell Fritz’ website where customers, or anyone else, can share ideas, concerns and suggestions directly with senior management. I will personally review and respond to some of these communications every day,” he promised.

Although it is still private, the company would provide regular public updates on its progress, he added. The company is still planning to go public some time next year.

Referring to GM’s rapid transformation — it completed bankruptcy proceedings in a record 40 days, 20 days early — Mr Henderson said: “Today, we take the intensity, decisiveness and speed of the past several months and transfer it from the triage of the bankruptcy process to the creation and operation of a new General Motors.”

He said that customers, cars and culture would be the company’s three priorities, and that, as part of its reinvention, the new GM would retain just four brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. By next year it would slim down its product range from 48 to 34, putting more resources into each model.

GM’s US employee base will drop from about 91,000 at the end of last year to about 64,000 at the end of this year, and it will also continue to consolidate its dealerships, from 6,000 this spring to about 3,600 by the end of next year. Even so, GM will still have the largest dealer network in the US.

The company is also working on a partnership with eBay in California. “Customers will be able to bid on actual vehicles just like they do in an eBay auction, including the option of choosing a predetermined ‘buy it now’ price. We’ll be testing this and other ideas with our dealers over the next few weeks, and hope to expand and build upon them in the coming months,” Mr Henderson said.

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