Auto maker Chrysler today said annual auto sales in the US could stay depressed at 10 million units for the next four years.
"It would be a mistake to assume that this 10 million market is an aberration. Instead, we need to accept and come to grips with it. We have to create a sustainable business model that works in the current environment," Chrysler Llc Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said at the Chicago Auto Show here.
US auto sales fell 18 per cent in 2008 to about 13.2 million units. In January, the sales fell by 37 per cent to a 26-year low.
Press said his company has a contingency plan to handle four more years of slumping auto sales.
"At Chrysler we have built into our planning the contingency that sales could stay at this level for up to four years," he said.
Chrysler, which is currently preparing a viability plan that it would be submitting to the US Treasury next week, said once the plan is completed, the company would have eliminated 1.3 million units of installed capacity and reduced fixed costs by more than 3.8 billion dollars.
"We feel good about our plan and we are confident we will be able to show our needs and requirements will be met," he said.