GM U.S. June sales running about same as past months

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General Motors Corp's (GM.N) U.S. sales have been trending about the same as the weak results of previous months, the automaker's president of North America said on Thursday.

"We'll make the sales report at the end of the month, but it looks a lot like it did in the previous couple of months," GM North America President Troy Clarke told reporters at an electric car conference in Washington.

Through May, GM sales were down 17 percent in 2008. GM posted a 30 percent adjusted drop in sales for May, which pulled its U.S. market share for the month below 20 percent for the first time.

Clarke and other GM officials have said they believe the company has enough cash to weather the current downturn and are placing a substantial bet on the development of the electric Chevrolet Volt, due in 2010, as a response to a dramatic consumer shift away from its core light-truck products.

"We think the Volt is a very well-targeted vehicle -- right segment, right technology, right time frame," Clarke said. "Full speed ahead."

He echoed comments made on Wednesday by Ford Motor Co (F.N) President Mark Fields, who said U.S. automakers needed substantial federal help to develop battery and other technology needed to bring electric-powered vehicles to market.

GM has held out hope for a more gradual recovery in U.S. sales in the second half of 2008 but warned earlier in June that it would be forced to close four truck plants in North America because consumer demand has shifted to smaller vehicles.

GM has relied historically on sales of larger trucks and SUVs for profits and the shift in demand has pressured its sales more dramatically this year than non-U.S.-based competitors that rely less on the larger vehicles.

GM shares were off 34 cents, or 2.1 percent to $15.78 in midday New York Stock Exchange trading on Thursday.

(Reporting by John Crawley in Washington and David Bailey in Detroit, editing by Mark Porter)