GM affirms profit and cost cutting targets

General Motors Co on Wednesday affirmed its forecast for 2016 profit of up to $6.00 per share and said it expected to exceed its cost-savings target of $5.5 billion by 2018 as the automaker unveiled a new effort to convince investors of its value.

GM said it cut costs by $3.1 billion in the first half, "more than offsetting incremental investments" in engineering and technology, including more than $1 billion spent on ride-sharing and vehicle automation.

In a new Strategic and Operational Overview released on Wednesday, GM said that it can make money if U.S. auto sales fall about 40 percent from today���s levels -- an estimated 17.3 million in 2016 -- to about 10.5 million.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Phil Berlowitz)