Although these facilities are unlikely to reopen for manufacturing of new models, GM chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said that the company's focus will now shift toward small, more fuel-efficient cars. Pledging a comprehensive commitment to more sustainable autos, Wagoner called the move a "structural shift," the New York Times reports.

"These prices are changing consumer behavior and changing it rapidly," he said at a briefing before GM's annual meeting in Wilmington, Delaware. "We don't believe it's a spike or a temporary shift; we believe it is, by and large, permanent."